Spike Lee

Director Spike Lee has spoken about his decision to boycott this year’s Oscars at the Berlin International Film Festival while premiering his latest movie Chi-Raq. Lee announced in January that he would not be attending this year’s ceremony, due to the lack of diversity among the nominees.

Spike Lee has spoken about his decision to boycott this year’s Academy Awards.

When asked about the Oscars diversity debate, Lee said he and his wife “never called a boycott. We just said we’re not going.” “Every year if you add up all the actor categories, there are 20 spots open and in the last two years not a single person of colour has been nominated,” Lee continued.

Continue reading: Spike Lee: 'Academy Changes Would Not Have Happened Without Oscars Ruckus'

Chi-Raq is about women in South Chicago who decide to withhold sex from their men to get them to stop killing each other. The story comes from ancient mythology, namely Lysistrata by Aristophanes. "It was originally [cowriter] Kevin Willmott's idea," Lee says. "He wrote the first treatment. We tried to get that off the ground but couldn't get it done. So a year ago I gave him a call and I asked if he still owned that script. He told me yes, it's still free. So I said lets cowrite it and let's make it take place in the South Side of Chicago. And here we are now. But it wasn't easy."

Finding a studio to finance the film was the next big challenge. "Amazon was the one who said yes. Everyone else said no," he says. "And I understand their hesitation a bit because the entire script is written in verse!" Lee has been outspoken about race and violence in America throughout his career, which has spanned such classics as 1989's Do the Right Thing, the biopic Malcolm X and the heist thriller Inside Man. So he wasn't surprised when Chi-Raq's trailer sparked an explosion of criticism on the internet.

Continue reading: Chi-Raq Finds Spike Lee Speaking Out Again

The trailer for Spike Lee's emotionally charged new drama 'Chi-Raq' is here, and while it's based on an ancient war comedy, he takes a far more serious look at the war raging on the streets of Chicago in regards to gang violence and the city's ever growing death toll.

Teyonah Parris brings the girl power in 'Chi-Raq'

The premise of the movie, as mentioned in the new trailer, is that homicides in Chicago have easily exceeded those of American Special Forces in Iraq (hence the title). It's a shocking statement that turns a would-be comedy into something far graver. It's based on the 411 BCE Greek play 'Lysistrata' by Aristophanes, which is set during the Peloponnesian War. The main idea is that the title character, a woman of independence and remarkable strength for that time, rallies together a group of women in a bid to end the war her own way; by persuading these ladies to sign an oath eschewing all sexual activity with their husbands until they agree to put down their weapons.

Continue reading: Spike Lee Explores Chicago's Gang Warfare In Intense Drama 'Chi-Raq' [Trailer + Pictures]

Amazon Studios has announced plans for its first movie release, teaming up with award-winning director Spike Lee for his forthcoming joint Chi-Raq.

The media giant confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that Lee’s next major movie will be the first original movie content for the studio, which is looking to expand from streaming into the territory that Netflix has started to occupy. The e-commerce giant announced at the start of 2015 that it was planning to make 12 movies a year.

Amazon unveiled the news on its so-called ‘Amazon Prime Day’, Wednesday July 15th, also the 20th anniversary of the compay. “Chi-Raq will shed light on the serious, but often overlooked issue of violence in inner city Chicago,” a statement by the studio said.

Continue reading: Amazon Studios Announces Spike Lee's 'Chi-Raq' As First Original Movie Content

A campaign to pressure movie director Spike Lee to change the name of his upcoming movie Chiraq has stepped up after a rookie alderman refused to grant a city permit to close a street for a summer block party. 

Spike Lee is facing pressure to change the title of his upcoming movie Chiraq

Newly elected Ald. David Moore (17th) is refusing to grant permission for a bash outside St. Sabina's Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham on Saturday because it is sponsored by Lee and the cast of Chiraq - a film about black-on-black violence.

Continue reading: Spike Lee Versus Chicago Intensifies After Street Party Is Blocked

Famed director Spike Lee was accused of insulting the residents of the city of Chicago by titling his new project ‘Chiraq’, a movie which will look at education and violence. He has also been criticised for doing damage to the city’s reputation and hurting tourism by choosing the term.

The moniker ‘Chiraq’ is a nickname sometimes used for the city by its young inhabitants, referring to its reputation for street violence and gun crime. But a number of anti-gun crime campaigners and tourist officials have pulled up Lee, a director famed for his uncompromising depictions of struggles in society, for perpetuating an unhelpful stereotype by choosing the title.

Spike Lee

Continue reading: Director Spike Lee Courts Controversy By Calling New Film 'Chiraq'

Spike Lee ruffled a few feathers when he let loose on the contemporary residents of Brooklyn and their dogs during his speech at the Pratt Institute. His tirade was never going to be unleashed without rebuttals, and Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service, has offered up just that.

Spike Lee has a go at hipsters...

Just in case you needed a reminder of what Lee’s views on the hipsters that currently dwell amidst the Brooklyn hubris are; when an audiences member suggested an ostensibly positive aspect of gentrification, Lee replied: “Let me, let me, let me, let me just kill you right now.” Lee was talking at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, an art, design, and architecture school. "I grew up here in New York. It's changed," he said. The transcript is here on The Guardian.

Continue reading: Spike Lee Gentrification Rant: Let The Rebuttals Begin

This holiday box office is already predicted to be a record breaker. With both Frozen premiering and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in cinemas, both movies are on course to break the previous Thanksgiving weekend record, according to The Hollywood Reporter. For the Wednesday-Sunday period, Frozen is predicted to bring in around $90 million, second only to Catching Fire, which is holding steady in its second week of release with $100 million predicted earnings for the same time period.

The second Hunger Games movie is on fire, if you'll pardon the pun.

Frozen is poised to easily beat the previous record for a Thanksgiving opening, which was set by Toy Story in 1999 with $80.1 million. It's also set to score the top opening for a Disney Animation Studios title, besting the $68.7 million debut of Tangled over Thanksgiving in 2010.

Continue reading: Box Office Highlights: What Are You Seeing This Weekend?