The Cast is Revealed in HBO Spike Lee, Mike Tyson Boxing Drama

"Attack the Block's" John Boyega and "The Wire's" Julito McCullum join the HBO project from Lee and John Ridley.

5:43 PM PDT 8/31/2011 by (Lacey Rose), (Lesley Goldberg) Hollywood Reporter



Fresh off its pilot pick up, HBO has cast the lead and three supporting players in its Spike Lee boxing drama Da Brick.



The premium network has cast Attack the Block star John Boyega (pictured left) to play the project's titular character. (Read my enthusiastic review of Attack the Block here)



Boyega will play Donnie, who, after his release from juvenile detention on his 18th birthday begins an exploration of what it means to be a man for himself and those around him.

Milauna Jemai (NCIS, pictured left) will play Lynette, Donnie's mother, with him he reconnects with following a 14-month separation.



Julito McCullum (The Wire, pictured below right) will play Kevin, Donnie's best friend and the one person he can't leave behind, no matter how much he may want to.

Kamahl Naiqui Palmer (Gossip Girl) is set as Malik, the moral center of Donnie's tight group of friends who is looking for direction between his middle-class upbringing and the harder realities of his environment.

Da Brick is described as a contemporary exploration of what it means to be a young, black man in a supposedly post-racial America.



The project hails from Lee and L.A. Riots' John Ridley.



Former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Entourage creator Doug Ellin and his producing partner Jim Lefkowitz are attached as nonwriting executive producers, along with Tyson's wife, Lakiha Tyson. Azim Spicer is attached as a nonwriting co-executive producer.



Lee is set to direct with Ridley on board to write and serve as showrunner.



It will be set in Newark, N.J., which is often dubbed "Brick City."



Much as Entourage was inspired by producer Mark Wahlberg's life, Da Brick will reflect aspects of Tyson's upbringing. It marks the latest in a string of Hollywood projects for Tyson, who has turned up in the Hangover franchise as well as Animal Planet's Taking on Tyson. Last season, he added a cameo on Entourage to his resume.



Cool Black's Mad Commentary: It must be said that this is JUST a pilot (first episode) order. HBO orders it, puts up the money to film it and THEN decides if they want to pay for the whole season. It's a good bet though that HBO will order a series from the pilot given the creative personnel involved.





Related Links

Read all of our posts about Da Brick here

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HBO Picks Up Spike Lee, Mike Tyson Boxing Drama

HBO Pick Ups Boxing Drama ‘Da Brick’ To Pilot; Doug Ellin, Spike Lee, Mike Tyson And John Ridley Executive Produce

By NELLIE ANDREEVA, Deadline.com
Tuesday August 30, 2011 @ 6:52pm PDT

EXCLUSIVE: It looks like Da Brick is a go at HBO. I hear the pay cable network has handed out a pilot order to the drama project about a young boxer from Entourage creator Doug Ellin, filmmaker Spike Lee, former boxing champion Mike Tyson (pictured left) and writer John Ridley. Ridley wrote the script for the pilot, which will be directed by Lee. Set in current-day Newark, NJ, nicknamed “brick city,” Da Brick is described as a contemporary exploration of what it means to be a young, black man in supposedly post-racial America and is loosely inspired by aspects of Tyson’s youth. Search is under way for an young black actor to play the lead.


John Ridley and Spike Lee

Da Brick stems from Tyson’s 2010 guest appearance on Ellin’s HBO comedy Entourage, a series inspired by executive producer Mark Wahlberg’s early years in Hollywood. “That’s when Mike asked me, why don’t we do with my life what we did with Mark’s life,” Ellin told me back in June when Da Brick was still in development. “The initial idea was ‘Entourage meets The Wire,‘ an edgy story about an up-and-coming boxer and his crew that is much more dramatic than Entourage.” While it was not a series Ellin felt he would write, he and his producing partner Jim Lefkowitz decided to develop and produce it through their company.

Lefkowitz brought in writer Ridley who, in turn, brought in Lee, with whom he had been developing a movie about the L.A. riots. Ellin, Lefkowitz, Ridley, Lee and Tyson are executive producing Da Brick, with Tyson’s wife Lakiha Tyson and Azim Spicer, CEO of Las Vegas’ SpiceReel Prods., co-executive producing.

CLICK the button to see all of our blog posts about SPIKE LEE

OldBoy - The Cool Black Review

OldBoy

Directed by: Park Chan-wook

Produced by: Lim Seng-yong

Written by: Hwang Jo-yun, Park Chan-wook, Lim Chun-hyeong, Lim Joon-hyung, Garon Tsuchiya

Starring:
Choi Min-sik
Yu Ji-tae
Kang Hye-jeong

Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon



Release date(s): Internationally 2003-2004
USA-Various film festivals -2005

Summary: The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef.

REVIEW by Cool Black
Since I’m not a fan of too much international cinema, (I’m a slave for American cinema. I know :-( ) I never even heard of OldBoy before Spike Lee signed on the direct the remake (read more about that here ) Having said that, let’s get on with the review.

If you think the summary above sounds way out, you don’t know the half of it. The film takes some wild detours into the “web of conspiracy” and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

The protagonist Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik) and antagonist and Lee Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae) are both excellent. This IS a tale of vengeance, but expect more dramatic scenes about the plot than action because of it. Truthfully the drama is more important to this film than the action and Choi Min-sik and Yu Ji-tae give great performances.

The direction by Park Chan-wook and cinematography by Chung Chung-hoon is some of the best I have ever seen. The visual style was well…excellent. Park Chan-wook gave necessary balance to both the visual and dramatic in this picture and excelled at both.

The violence in the film is for a reason, which again I won’t get into, but it has to do with the “quest for vengeance”. I’ve seen lesser films have unbridled violence for less than substantial reasons. There are really no elaborate action “set pieces” and again the action is organic to the film. Even when Oh Dae-Su finds out why he was imprisoned, the ensuing violence is not what you’d expect…well some of what you’d expect, but again I’ll have to refrain from saying more.

Ultimately, if you are a fan of action thrillers and excellent movies, you should see this film!

Principal Photography On Spike Lee’s 'Red Hook Summer' Complete

The below pic and info is from the blog for Spike Lee's company 40 Acres & A Mule - August 2, 2011



We've wrapped...

HALLELUJAH and can I get an AMEN? We have just wrapped The Principal Photography of The New Spike Lee Joint RED HOOK SUMMER.

We at 40 Acres are committed to building upon our Body of Work. I send you all a deep and sincere heartfelt Thanks for your Love, Support, Prayers and Blessings from Wayback in Da Wayback.

Peace and Love,

Spike Lee
Da Republic of Brooklyn

JOINTOGRAPHY

She's Gotta Have It 1986

School Daze 1988

Do The Right Thing 1989

Mo' Better Blues 1990

Jungle Fever 1991

Malcolm X 1992

Crooklyn 1994

Clockers 1995

Girl 6 1996

Get On The Bus 1996

4 Little Girls (DOC) 1997

He Got Game 1998

Summer of Sam 1999

The Original Kings of Comedy 2000

Bamboozled 2000

25th Hour 2002

Jim Brown All-American (DOC) 2002

She Hate Me 2004

Sucker Free City 2004

Inside Man 2006

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (DOC) 2006

Miracle at St. Anna 2008

Passing Strange 2009

Kobe Doin' Work (Doc) 2009

If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise (DOC) 2010

Red Hook Summer 2012

Source: 40Acres.com

CLICK the button to see all of our blog posts about SPIKE LEE

Spike Lee is BACK- 2 Times, 2 Times

Spike Lee whose last feature was 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna, has spent the last several years working on TV documentaries and is now back making TWO narrative feature films.

From Blackfilm.com-

Blackfilm.com has exclusively learned that Spike Lee is currently working on a new feature film called ‘Red Hook Summer‘ with production slated to start this month. Details on the plot is limited, but a close source has informed us that the story centers on a adult from Atlanta who comes and spends the summer in Red Hook section of Brooklyn, NY. The kicker to this story is that Lee will be reprising his role as Mookie, the character he played over twenty years ago in his most famous film, 1989′s ‘ Do the Right Thing.’

*According to Twitter Spike has started Principal Photography on Monday, July 11, 2011! - Cool Black

UPDATE: August 2, 2011: Principal Photography is COMPLETE. Read about it here

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Spike Lee To Direct 'Oldboy' For Mandate

By THE DEADLINE TEAM
Monday July 11, 2011 @ 11:42am PDT

Mandate Pictures just announced that Spike Lee will direct Oldboy, a remake of the cult 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Mark Protosevich has adapted the screenplay and will co-produce; Roy Lee and Doug Davison will produce via Vertigo Entertainment with Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule. Mandate president Nathan Kahane will executive produce. Lee and Protosevich are repped by CAA. Dan Freedman, SVP business affairs, negotiated the deals for Mandate.

This is the project that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith were looking to collaborate on back in 2008, with DreamWorks seeking the remake rights at the time. The film originally was set up at Universal before Mandate took over. The story centers on a man who is kidnapped on his daughter's birthday and held for 15 years in solitary confinement without explanation. He is eventually released and sets out on a path to take revenge on those who destroyed his life.

Cool Black's Mad Commentary: While I'm happy to know Spike Lee will make another film in Brooklyn not exactly excited that he will be revisiting a character from my favorite "Joint" Do The Right Thing. I prefer for all of those characters to be frozen in time. Oh well. It's his thing.

As far as Oldboy this sounds like an interesting film to be remaking. I only hope the studio doesn't interfere too much which happens on a lot of foreign remakes. They never turn out to be any good.

Update: August 17, 2011: I recently saw and reviewed the original OldBoy. Read that review here

External links-

You can read more about the original OldBoy and its WILD plot here

Read the article and more comments about Oldboy remake at the great site Shadow & Act here

June 30, 2011- Hollywood Reporter
Spike Lee: Why I Haven't Made a Feature Film in Three Years
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/spike-lee-why-i-havent-207371

Related posts-

Another Spike Lee Joint joins the National Film Registry

Spike Lee-Tyler Perry-No Fued

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30 Black Hollywood Game Changers

HAS THE BLACK HOLLYWOOD GAME CHANGERS

CLICK the pic above to them check it out!

Spike Lee Defends Himself Against Criticism-Again

In local speech, Spike Lee accuses his accusers of double standard

Filmmaker defends himself against criticism from Italian-American groups

January 18, 2011

In a speech Tuesday at a college in Naperville, filmmaker Spike Lee (pictured above left) said the criticism of his visit by two local Italian-American groups is a clear example of a double standard.

"They said my films portrayed stereotypical images of Italian-Americans," Lee said. "But this is the oldest trick in the world. When the subject matter (of a film) is racism, they accuse you of that. They belittle your work. If one of my films deals with race — 'Oh, he's racist!'"

Last week, two Italian-American groups criticized North Central College administrators for inviting Lee to speak at the school during its week of celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The groups said Lee's films, including "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever," stereotyped Italian-Americans.

During his speech, Lee read racist quotations from movies made by Italian-American directors, such as "The Godfather," "Goodfellas" and "Casino" — many which used the N-word. These films, Lee said, portrayed stereotypes or used racial slurs against African-Americans.

"In no way am I saying these directors are racist," Lee said, referring to a group that includes Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. "All of these are great films — except for one or two. And for the most part, these scenes describe actions between Italian-Americans and African-Americans, and they're not considered stereotypical images. Why the disconnect?"

Lee asked why it was acceptable for these Italian-American directors to have their characters portray race and racism in America while he is criticized for doing so.

"Why do we have two different set of standards?" Lee asked. "Why is the football field 100 yards for them, and we have to do 150?"

Lee had one more piece of advice for his Italian-American critics.

"Those guys need to protest 'Jersey Shore,'" he said, referring to the hit reality show on MTV that shows a group of young Italian-Americans partying and generally acting up. "That's what they need to do."

-Related posts
Another Spike Lee Joint joins the National Film Registry

Spike Lee-Tyler Perry-No Fued

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Another Spike Lee Joint joins the National Film Registry

Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington is one of the latest films to be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. The other "Spike Lee Joint" on the National Film Registry is the 1989 film Do the Right Thing inducted in 1999.

The films, which include Hollywood classics, documentaries, innovative shorts and genres from virtually every era of American filmmaking, span the period 1891-1996. This year's selections bring the number of films in the registry to 550.

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, the Librarian of Congress each year names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant. To be preserved for all time, these are not selected as the "best" American films of all time but rather as works of enduring significance to American culture.

"As the nation's repository of American creativity, the Library of Congress -- with the support of Congress -- must ensure the preservation of America's film patrimony," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said. "The National Film Registry is a reminder to the nation that the preservation of our cinematic creativity must be a priority because about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90% of those made before 1920 have been lost to future generations."

Annual selections to the registry are finalized by the Librarian after reviewing hundreds of titles nominated by the public and having extensive discussions with the members of the National Film Preservation Board as well as the Library's motion picture staff. The Librarian urges the public to make nominations for next year's registry at the Film Board's website at www.loc.gov/film.

For each title named, the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation works to ensure that the film is preserved for future generations, either through the Library's massive motion-picture preservation program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, studios and independent filmmakers.

The Packard Campus, funded as a gift to the nation by the Packard Humanities Institute, is a state-of-the-art facility where the nation's library acquires, preserves and provides access to the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings. The campus is home to more than 6 million items, including nearly 3 million sound recordings.-The Hollywood Reporter

You can see a list of all of 2010 newly registered films here

The site

has a list of all the African American Films in the National Film Registry. Go to their page right here

If you enjoyed the film 'Malcolm X' you should check out By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X (book cover pictured left). In the book Spike Lee describes the troubles he encountered while making the film Malcolm X. Click here for more reviews at Amazon.com


Related posts-
African Americans at the Oscars

Brooklyn Week-Inauguration

No Fued-Spike Lee & Tyler Perry

No Feud by Spike Lee

Wednesday, 17 March 2010 09:05

Despite what has been written or said I'm not feuding with Tyler Perry. I was on a show being interviewed by Host Ed Gordon. The only words pulled from my answer about Mr. Perry were 'Coonery and Buffoonery'. Please read the below transcript of the exchange. I feel Artists should be able to critique each other's work, Athletes and Musicians have been doing this for ages. As long as it's given in a loving spirit (which my opinions were) it's all good.

Thank you for reading.
Spike Lee
Filmmaker
Brooklyn, New York
3/17/10

-------------------------------------

Transcript from Our World with Black Enterprise:
Segment where host Ed Gordon with Director and Filmmaker Spike Lee talk about diversifying African American imagery
Aired: May 30, 2009

ED GORDON

There is a sense of in our community...I remember having people come to me if I interviewed the president and say, 'oh that's great' but then we'd look at our numbers and if I had interviewed Whitney or Oprah the numbers were much, much bigger. There's a school of thought that says, 'oh, we're not diversifying our imagery enough in our community,' yet there are certain images whether they be in plays, or movies, or music that we flock to -whether we like to admit it or not. I'm wondering is that just the black middle class saying, ' Oh no, that's not what we want,' but a lot of us wanting it?

SPIKE LEE

Well, this is a complex subject because each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavor, but I still think there's a lot of stuff that's on today that's coonery and buffoonery... and I know it's making a lot of money-

Audience applause.

SPIKE LEE (CONT'D)

Breaking records but we could do better. That's just my opinion. I'm a huge basketball fan and when I watch the games on TNT I see these two ads for these two shows and I'm scratching my head, ya know? We got a black president. Are we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep N' Eat?

Audience laughter.

ED GORDON

Yet, if those films, and we're talking about Tyler Perry at this point -

Audience laughter.

ED GORDON (CONT'D)

No, I mean look...I'm not saying...let's not give them fodder for tabloid...I'm not saying we're talking about Tyler Perry, but those are the shows that we're talking about. If we're talking about that and we look at the numbers that come and see his movies ... that view the shows on TBS...my question is that, maybe, what Black America wants to see?

SPIKE LEE

A large part.

Mumbles in the audience.

ED GORDON

I hear a lot of no's in the audience but a lot of people are watching it.

SPIKE LEE

Here's the thing though, we've had this discussion back and forth because when John Singleton...people came out to see Boyz N' Da Hood. He did Rosewood...nobody showed up. So, a lot of this is on us. A lot of this is on us, we…you vote with your pocketbook, your wallet, your time sitting in front of the idiot box. And the man has a huge audience. Tyler's very smart...in what's he done. He started off with these plays. Church buses would pull up packed and he's parlayed it into...bought his own jet. If you could buy a jet, you got money.

Audience laughter.

SPIKE LEE (CONT'D)

But at the same time, for me, just imagery is troubling.

ED GORDON

Is there disappointment from you as a director and an African American that Miracle at St. Anna won't get the same audience as some of the other movies that you will make and, therefore, the idea of what we support?

SPIKE LEE

Here's the thing, DVD is the director's best friend. A lot of people have come up to me and said they like the film a lot. For whatever reason they didn't get to see it in the theatre but they definitely got the bootleg

Audience laughter.

SPIKE LEE (CONT'D)

Or watched it on television - Pay Per View - and even if nobody showed up, I wanted to make that film because Hollywood historically has omitted the contribution of 1.1 African American men and women who fought and died for this country in World War Two and I just got tired of seeing these films again, again and again which does not give any love to us. The first person that died for this country was a black man. Crispus Attucks. We're more patriotic than anybody.

-------------(END)-----------------

UPDATE APRIL 20, 2011

Tyler Perry made some statements during a press junket to promote 'Madea's Big Happy Family' among them “Spike Lee Can Go Straight to Hell! You Can Print That”. You can read AND hear it here

Brooklyn Week-Inauguration

Welcome to BROOKLYN WEEK a fun little excercise I thought about and decided to do.


Brooklyn Week is a week at Cool Black Media devoted to artists from Brooklyn, New York. The first Brooklyn Week is devoted to hip-hop, but you never know it may be expanded in the future.

Brooklyn week is actually Monday-Friday, but Imma start it off with someone who wasn't born in Brooklyn (pretty much a prerequisite), but who reps Brooklyn to the FULLEST. And to answer your question Cool Black was BORN IN BROOKLYN!

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) (pictured left) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He also teaches film at New York University and Columbia University. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.

Lee's movies have examined race relations, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. Lee has won an Emmy Award and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Cool Black's Favorite Five Spike Lee Joints
1. Do The Right Thing
2. Malcolm X
3. Bamboozled
4. Jungle Fever
5. School Daze

Read more about Spike at Wikipedia


__________________________________________________

JUNE 1, 2011
I recently added reviews of two books Mr. Lee wrote to GoodReads. Those reviews are below.

By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don’t even know why I bought this book about the film ‘Malcolm X’ (1992) but if you ever want to know how hard it is to get a film made in Hollywood ESPECIALLY a period piece epic, this is the book you should read. Even if you’re not that interested in how a movie is made, it is STILL an interesting read as a tale of “Trials and Tribulations”.

By Any Means Necessary is not just a means to piggyback on brother Malcolm’s famous phrase, but it crystallizes exactly the mentality Mr. Lee had in mind when making this film. To me the narratives in this book were just as engrossing as the film itself.

PS: For the record the famous quote is-

"We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary. ” — Malcolm X, 1965

_________________________________________________________

 

Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘Do the Right Thing’ is my FAVORITE “Spike Lee Joint”. Don’t know why it took me so long to get this book, but it did. Probably because I owned, and poured over all of the extras on the 2 Disc DVD. What more could I learn right? Turns out a lot more. Yes the DVD was very detailed, but much insight is to be gained in this book mostly curated from his journals while making this DTRT.

For most of all of his early films, Spike Lee published an accompanying book. This was also mostly before DVDs with all of their commentaries and extras. Even back then it seems that Mr. Lee knew that other filmmakers like me were interested not only in his films, but the stories behind them as well.

View all my reviews