Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a great little tidbit from a University talk Spike Lee did recently in the Detroit area. We had a spy there who heard something veeerrrryyyy interesting escape the lips of Mr. Lee. Here's the tip-off:
This past MLK day I had the opportunity to hear Spike Lee speak at a university in the metro Detroit area. Most of the presentation revolved around Mr. Lee speaking out about current social issues. When the conversation eventually turned towards the subject of film he was asked what he was currently working on. He said that after the Katrina documentary that he is working on he is hoping to get started on a Joe Louis bio pic starring none other than Oscar nominee Terrence Howard. I don't know if this is news to anyone else but I don't remember reading about this anywhere online so I thought I would send the info your way. If you use this call me The Baumer.
Period Spike Lee, Terrence Howard as Joe Louis... Count me there. We also got another bit of coverage from a different college talk (this on U of Mississippi), which echoes the last report, but gives a little more detail on the Katrina documentary and... SCHOOL DAZE 2? Hrmm... take a look!
Hello Harry,
I've never written in with a scoop before, but I don't get too many chances in Northern Mississippi. Fortunately, last Thursday Spike Lee visited my campus, the University of Mississippi. The mayor spoke and said that while Milos Forman and Robert Altman have done work around Oxford, MS, that Spike Lee is the first to make a public appearance.
He was a good speaker and talked about his experience growing up, getting into film school, personal responsibility, etc. He then talked about upcoming projects. After Inside Man, the film coming out in March I believe, he is going to put out a documentary about residents of New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath called "When the Levees Broke". The documentary would talk to different sets of residents all over the city, and see how the government response has failed, worked, or whatever. He said it would be in the vein of his "4 Little Girls" documentary.
After that, he has a script lined up to do a movie about Joe Lewis, with Terrence Howard playing Joe Lewis. He mentioned that he thought guys like Jackie Robinson and Joe Lewis were more inspirational in the battles they had to overcome, and he considered them his heroes when he broke the race boundaries in film.
He also spoke about the fascination among youth with gangster culture and about how any black youth trying to learn was accused of acting white. He said this was genocide because of how hard their ancestors had worked to have the right to learn. I mention this because he then said he had a script lined up to address these issues called "School Dayz 2". I don't know if that is the actual title or what. He said he liked the idea of revisiting a college campus story, only ten years after his School Daze film, and seeing how the culture and mindsets have changed.
He also said a more elaborate version of "He Got Game" would be coming out on dvd soon. If you use this, please call me JerkStore.
Thanks.
Drew Harris
2nd Year Law
University of Mississippi
