Director Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer" isn't all it appears to be. The religiously-charged drama about an Atlanta boy sent to spend the summer with his Brooklyn-based estranged grandfather, a preacher, has a dark secret at its core, one that Lee intends to "keep on lock."
"Everything is evolution," the celebrated New York filmmaker told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival about his movie's origins. "I don't know anyone who the first time they sit down to talk has [a story] mapped out from beginning, middle and end. It was the evolution of a germ of an idea and we kept building layer upon layer upon layer."
Where did that germ of an idea come from, you ask? Believe it or not, the answer is none other than horror novelist Stephen King, at least in part.
"We wanted to make a film about young black kids, like 'Stand By Me,'" said Lee. "I love that film. Where's the people of color version of that film? I'm not saying this is it, but that's the type of film… I want to see that. James and I wanted to see this film in a theater. We wanted the world to see these characters in this isolated part of Brooklyn, Red Hook."
Lee's Sundance entry is not the only high profile project on his radar at the moment. The filmmaker is currently working on the American adaptation of "Oldboy," starring Josh Brolin and potentially Mia Wasikowska. When the subject was brought up, Lee's lips were shut tight.
"We'll see. Still working on it," he said of the film's progress. "People are fanatical about that film and they've let me know. We're not scared of anything, but right now we're focusing on 'Red Hook Summer.'"
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance.
** FOLLOW MTV MOVIES BLOG ON TWITTER! **