Spike Lee: “My path in life is to speak the truth – I’m not gonna run from it”

J. Kim Murphy editorIn an interview on a new episode of Luminary’s Black List Podcast, hosted by Black List co-founder Franklin Leonard and Black List community director Kate Hagen, Spike Lee voices his agreement with growing calls to remove statues and iconography commemorating the Confederate States of America.“F— that flag,” Lee said.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorThe relationship between director Spike Lee and composer Terence Blanchard is rooted in collaboration, counting over 15 films together — most recently, “Da 5 Bloods.”“Terence is a great jazz musician and band player,” says Lee. “He brings that wealth of understanding of what music does with colors, shapes and feeling.”Blanchard, who moonlights as a trumpeter, credits the strength of their 30-year relationship to Lee’s self-assurance as an artist.

Ellise Shafer editorSpike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” will be free to stream online until June 29.The 1989 film is also the American Film Institute‘s pick this week for its Movie Club. It will be accompanied by a live conversation with Lee on AFI’s YouTube channel on Thursday at 8 p.m.

Todd McCarthy The most striking, urgent, up-to-the-minute film I’ve seen this week was directed by Spike Lee. It speaks to the moment, pulses with turbulent emotional and political currents, overflows with vibrant characters and bluntly confronts society’s painful unfinished business.

In announcing its latest Movie Club selection, the American Film Institute packed in a bit more news. The organization is partnering with Universal Pictures to offer free rentals of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and will feature the filmmaker in conversation on Thursday.

Casting close calls are endlessly fascinating. What would have happened if Tom Selleck starred in “Indiana Jones?” Or Will Smith as Neo in “The Matrix?” Film fans love to debate what could have been almost as much as what was.

Even with decades of acclaimed features and a recent Oscar win, Spike Lee still has to fight for his creative vision. And that fight extends to folks like Netflix, a studio notorious for spending large amounts of cash to please its filmmakers.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorCinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel was working on Sam Hargrave’s “Extraction” in Asia when Spike Lee called to ask him to work on “Da 5 Bloods.” Sigel, who is known for his work on such diverse films as “Three Kings,” “The Usual Suspects” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and had previously collaborated with Lee only on commercials, was unsure whether he’d have ample time to prep, but he wasn’t going to say no.

David Byrne‘s ‘American Utopia on Broadway’, directed by Spike Lee, is set to premiere on HBO later this year.The Broadway production saw Byrne perform a selection of hits from both his Talking Heads and solo career alongside an 11-person ensemble that danced and carried its instruments around the stage.It toured the world off the back of Byrne’s solo album ‘American Utopia’ before becoming a Broadway production.

the Spike Lee-directed version of Broadway show “David Byrne’s American Utopia.”The film will launch on the premium cable network later this year and comes after Deadline revealed the filmed version of the show in January.The Broadway production, which opened October 2019 and ran through February 16 at the Hudson Theatre, features the Talking Heads cofounder accompanied by 11 musicians from around the world performing songs from Byrne’s 2018 album “American Utopia” as well as hits from his

Even though we’re just now coming off the release of Spike Lee’s most recent feature film, “Da 5 Bloods,” that doesn’t mean the filmmaker is taking the rest of the year off.

J. Kim Murphy editorHBO will air the filmed version of the Broadway show “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” directed by Spike Lee, later this year.The announcement was made on Tuesday by HBO’s executive VP of programming Nina Rosenstein.“‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ is a uniquely transformative experience and a perfect example of how entertainment can bring us together during these challenging times,” said Rosenstein.

You would think that Spike Lee wouldn’t have much trouble finding a studio to finance and distribute his films. After decades of films that have been nominated for all sorts of awards and coming off his first Oscar win, it would stand to reason that a filmmaker would have a line of studios hoping to work with him.

Shortly after the video was released of George Floyd being killed by a police officer and protests began to rise up around the US, Spike Lee released a short clip editing together the videos of Floyd and Eric Garner being killed alongside a similar scene in the director’s own “Do The Right Thing,” asking the question, “When will history stop repeating itself?” In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lee talked about the connection between his 1989 acclaimed film and the recent racist

"He's trying to be a dictator"

«Will history stop repeating itself?» Spike Lee asks as much at the start of a minute-and-a-half-long short film he shared on Twitter, which splices clips from his 1989 film,, with footage of the police killings of Eric Garner in 2014 and George Floyd in May.

NEW YORK -- It's not the first time that Spike Lee's “Do the Right Thing” has been freshly urgent, but Lee's 1989 film has again found blistering relevance in the wake of George Floyd's death.