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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Well Duh


This was forwarded to me from Mrs. Grapevine; file this under "No shit, Sherlock":

From the "Hollywood Reporter": Spike Lee, in Tuscany, Italy, to scout locations for his next film and to receive the 41st Fiesole Masters of Cinema Award, took swings Monday at Hollywood for its portrayal of black characters, at Washington for its foreign policy and at the film industry in general for leaving him on the outside looking in.

Said the two-time Oscar nominee, here for preproduction work on his latest project, "Miracle at St. Anna," a $45 million World War II drama set in Italy: "My last feature film, 'Inside Man,' was my most successful so far, and I was naive enough to think that that meant I could go from there and make any film I wanted to make. But I was very, very wrong about that. Anybody who thinks that I've become part of the mainstream doesn't understand the way it works."
Lee sparked laughter several times. At one point, he said he would win an Oscar only when he's so old he would have to be pushed onstage in a wheelchair.

Lee said that "Miracle" -- his first film shot mostly outside the U.S. -- will be the first WWII film to feature a largely black cast. "I'm a big fan of World War II movies, but up until now I've only seen two that featured any black soldiers," Lee said. "There was Jim Brown in 'Dirty Dozen' and (James Edwards), who was Gen. Patton's valet in 'Patton.' I know we can do better than that."
Commenting on Washington, Lee said there has been no war in which the U.S. had been involved since World War II that he would consider a "just" war.

"I'm a storyteller, and so I needed a story," Lee said. "I knew I had it when I read the novel."
Lee said McBride already has produced three "strong" drafts of the screenplay for the film, which will be filmed using U.S., Italian and German actors, with a mostly Italian crew. Filming will take place in Tuscany, Rome's Cinecitta Studios and New York.

From Invisible Woman: Racism in Hollywood? Who woulda thunk it?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful, wonderful article about my man Spike. This guy is always working, always showing the way for his fellow black film makers. Spike we love you man, keep "doing the right thing".

***GLENDELL-THE ART MASTER***
See masterful works now at:
Framed Art
glendellsartandmusic.blogspot.com

Lester Spence said...

i think this is PR. spike should've known that-on the real-it takes more than one INSIDE MAN to get increased autonomy. if he'd have had two or three and got the same treatment then he should've been surprised.

Invisible Woman said...

Agreed LS; if there's one thing I've always said about Spike since the beginning of his career is that he's a marketing and PR genius.