Spike Lee claims that Denzel Washington is no longer going to work as a filmmaker. “He says that he’s done [directing],” Lee told Bradley Cooper in an interview for Variety.
Cooper was left perplexed by the revelation. I guess we need to take Lee’s word for it since he and Denzel have been good friends for decades. Regardless, it’s not like Washington had a great streak going as a filmmaker.
Washington’s directed four films, so far, “The Great Debaters,” “Antoine Fisher,” “Fences” and “A Journal For Jordan.” The latter got trounced by critics when it was released in 2021.
Did the negative reaction for “A Journal For Jordan” seal Washington’s fate as a filmmaker? Released by Sony in 2021, during the pandemic, the movie earned just $6 million worldwide. It was an especially disappointing effort since it came off the heels of 2016’s “Fences,” which was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.