Let’s see how Spike Lee does with his next few movies. The “BlacKkKlansman” director had a solid outing with the aforementioned movie last year, which was deemed a comeback of sorts after a rough 10-year stretch of films which included “Miracle at St. Anna,” “Red Hook Summer,” “Oldboy,” “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” and, although it had its fans, but not I, “Chiraq.” Those were, to me at least, the five worst Spike Lee joints of his career.
And this coming from an unadorned fans of his, Lee could practically do no wrong in my books between his debut “She’s Gotta Have It” back in 1986 all the way to 2006’s heist flick “Inside Man,” let’s pretend 2004’s misbegotten “She Hate Me” doesn’t exist in that realm of movies. The filmography speaks for itself, really, “Do the Right Thing,” “Jungle Fever,” “Malcom X,” “The 25th Hour,” “Summer of Sam,” and his most underrated movie and, quite curiously, the most pertinently relevant to 2019, what with its satirical depiction of blackface in the mainstream, “Bamboozled.”
With all that being said I hope he can continue delivering stuff of the caliber of last year’s Oscar-nominated film, as Variety is reporting that the now-Oscar-nominated directors next movie will be with Netflix and titled “Da 5 Bloods.”
“To quote my brother Jay-Z from Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn ‘On to Da Next One,’” Lee said to Variety. “Da 5 Bloods” will circle around a group of Vietnam veterans who return to southeast Asia to find who they were before the war. .”
Chadwick Boseman has been cast as the lead for the film, with Delroy Lindo in talks to star, ditto Jean Reno. Sources say production could start as quickly as March.
The timing is interesting. The settlement talks will occur nearly a month after the $7 million-per-day ticking fee start tabulating, which puts real pressure on Paramount to get this done.