It took the great Samuel L. Jackson reassuming his Señor Love Daddy moniker for just a moment on the red carpet to capture the vibe in the air for the 20th anniversary screening of "Do The Right Thing" on Monday night (June 29). "It's a pretty stupendous, awesome, hot day," said the surprise attendee to the celebration. "And it's going to be a hot night, so let's all listen to some cool sounds and enjoy the renown of the major movie of its time, 'Do the Right Thing'! Waaaake Up!"
Not that the crowd assembled wasn't awake to begin with. After all, there are few films so incendiary in their time, so revered in the years that came after, so brutally funny, honest and raw. Cast and crew came out in force for the celebration of "Do the Right Thing," newly released on June 30 in a special Blu-ray edition DVD. There was John Turturro, then a green young actor, refusing to acknowledge the passage of time. "I deny it! It's not been 20 years!"
Few events in recent history seem a more perfect fit for director Spike Lee than the racially-charged Los Angeles riots in 1992. Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment thought so too, agreeing in 2006 to move ahead with a drama about the situation. Then Lee’s ambitious aspirations met budgetary realities.
“We didn’t get the money that we needed to make the movie I wanted to make,” Lee told MTV News in an exclusive interview. “How can you scale back the LA riots?! That’s not the movie I want to make. The studio said, ‘Scale it back.’ What’s the point?” Read more...
James Brown is the lone Godfather of Soul, and even if he looks a lot like Wesley Snipes in Spike Lee's upcoming biopic, Lee wants to make sure there's one recognizable voice coming through the microphone when the legendary figure appears on-screen.
"We're doing it together – it's going to happen," Lee told MTV News in an exclusive interview at the Sundance Film Festival this week. The Oscar nominated director of "Do the Right Thing" and "Inside Man" lavished praise on Snipes. "He’s my man," Lee said; but when it comes to the vocals on Brown's classic tracks like "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Get Up Offa That Thing," expect to hear the authentic voice of James Brown being dubbed in. Read more...
It's been a much talked-about subject: with Will Smith's interest in potentially playing our new president Barack Obama, could that lead to something real? If that happened, director Spike Lee seems like someone who'd be interested in telling Obama's rags-to-riches story.
Not so fast. Lee tells MTV News that he has no interest in an Obama biopic. "Everybody and their mama is doing a documentary on Obama," he said during an interview for his new Sundance film "The Passing Strange." Watch his comments firsthand in the video below, and then click here to read more about it.
Big plot changes and casting continuity are in store for Spike Lee’s sequel to his 2006 bank heist blockbuster, “Inside Man,” the director exclusively told MTV News at Sundance.
Early reports had the movie, tentatively titled “Inside Man 2,” focusing on Clive Owen and his crew of ingenious thieves getting embroiled in a New York diamond district heist. “Naw, naw, not anymore,” Lee now says of that potential storyline, declining to reveal any fresh details. “Can’t tell you, or I’ll have to do one of these,” he says, making a stabbing motion. He did admit that, like the first picture, the sequel will be shot on location in New York City. Read more...
Since we're interviewing a ton of celebrities here at Sundance, we brainstormed what else -- above and beyond the standard interview -- could we do with them.
So what'd we decide? Our very own PHOTO BOOTH! Given MTV's storied past with photo booths, it seemed natural. So keep checking in to get an inside look of celebrities in a way you probably haven't seen before. Some of Hollywood's biggest names will be swinging through our booth, so stay tuned. First up is Spike Lee, in town to promote his new film "Passing Strange." Check out his first photo below and then click here to see all of the growing Sundance photo booth participants. Thanks, Spike!
Sundance is up and running and so is your MTV News movies team! Today marks the first full day of screenings and interviews at the fest and sure enough, it looks to be a jam-packed day for us.
How better to kick off the granddaddy of indie film fests than with an interview with Spike Lee? We'll try not to mention how great Clint was in "Gran Torino." Hmm...on second thought maybe we will.
Later on we'll catch up with the brains behind one of the most talked about comedies here this year, "Mystery Team." Judging by the clips we premiered here these guys could be a big story here this week. Read more...
The snow is blowin' and the ice is turning really slippery, but the MTV News team here in Park City, Utah is ready to do what we do. Over the coming days we'll be bringing you exclusive interviews with tons of big stars, and we'll be covering the hottest events. So stay tuned, and check out our Day 1 photo gallery below.
If you’ve been keeping up on your movie news, you know that Spike Lee is planning to make a sequel to his 2006 hit “Inside Man.” You’ve read articles like this one, this one and this one, or heard that Lee spoke again about the movie just recently, telling reporters: "If the script is not better than the first one, myself, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen-- we said we're not doing it.”
So, they’re all in as long as the script is good, right? Well, apparently everybody in the world knows the news – but somebody forgot to tell Jodie Foster.
“Why, you have some dope I don’t know about?” Foster recoiled when we spoke to her recently, genuinely seeming as though she’d never heard a peep about an “Inside Man” sequel in her life. “I don’t think that’s what he said.”
“You know something more than I know?” she teased. “Are you writing it or something?” Read more...
The escalating battle between filmmakers Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood may have reached a crescendo Friday afternoon when, just hours after he spoke with MTV News, Lee called Eastwood an "angry old man" in an interview with ABC.
"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either," Lee angrily said, referring to Clint's insistence that Lee "shut his face" over perceived racial inaccuracies in his WWII drama "Flags of our Fathers."
So much for taking "the Obama high road," eh Spike? Read more...
