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Netflix Teams With Spike Lee for 'She's Gotta Have It' Series

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Lee will direct all episodes for the series, which is his first.

Netflix is now in the Spike Lee business.

The streamer has greenlighted a new series based on the filmmaker's 1986 indie film She's Gotta Have It, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Similar to the premise of the film, the show centers on Nola Darling, a Brooklyn-based artist in her late 20s struggling to define herself and divide her time among her friends, her job and her three lovers: the cultured model, Greer Childs; the protective investment banker, Jamie Overstreet; and da original b-boy sneakerhead, Mars Blackmon.

Lee, who created the series, will direct all episodes and executive produce with his wife, producer Tonya Lewis Lee. Netflix will produce the show, which was originally in development at Showtime in 2014.

The first season will run for 10 episodes.

Lee famously paved the way for African-American independent filmmakers when She's Gotta Have It, shot in just 12 days, went on to gross more than $7 million at the box office. The film earned Lee an Independent Spirit Award for best first feature, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association New Generation Award and an Award of the Youth from the Cannes Film Festival.

The series pickup comes a month after She's Gotta Have It celebrated its 30th anniversary.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflix-teams-spike-lee-shes-929188

Definitely looking forward to it since Lee is directing all the episodes.
 
I still haven't seen "She's Gotta Have It", so this news will make me seek it out and watch it this weekend. Plus I see an older, experienced, mature Spike has said this so it gives me hope for the series :
My wife has told me on occasion that I can be my own worst enemy, and she is a smart lady. But I don't really have any regrets. Check that. You know what my biggest regret is? … The rape scene in She's Gotta Have It. If I was able to have any do-overs, that would be it. It was just totally…stupid. I was immature. It made light of rape, and that's the one thing I would take back. I was immature and I hate that I did not view rape as the vile act that it is. I can promise you, there will be nothing like that in She's Gotta Have It, the TV show, that's for sure.
 
I see Vanity Fair added:

Lee joining Netflix makes him the latest entry in the streaming service’s tradition of nabbing high-profile filmmakers for TV series. The platform first turned heads when it won over David Fincher, who directed the first two episodes of House of Cards and joined on to executive produce the political series starring acting heavyweights Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey. Since then, more famous names have followed. The Wachowskis were given free reign to make the sprawling sci-fi drama Sense8, which debuted last summer, and Judd Apatow delivered the romantic dramedy Love this past February.

Hip-hop series The Get Down continued this tradition, with glitzy director Baz Luhrmann serving as an executive producer and show-runner of sorts. The show also had the shocking recent distinction of being Netflix’s most expensive show ever, with its final budget clocking in at around $120 million. However, that little detail has called into question perhaps the most popular question about Netflix: How can the company actually afford all this?

The secretive platform is stingy with business details, keeping under wraps things like its streaming numbers and its spending strategy. Netflix continue to spend exorbitant sums of money and content, recently dropping a rumored $100 million on the Queen Victoria series The Crown. Netflix is like your flashy friend whose job you just don’t understand. Every time you see them, they have something shiny and new—but when you ask how on earth they’re so damn rich, they’ll offer up only a genial wink.

One sign the network might actually be scaling back, despite the Spike Lee news, is the recent cancellation of Bloodline, the thriller starring Kevin Chandler and Linda Cardellini. The show never quite captured the zeitgeist like Orange Is the New Black or, most recently, Stranger Things, but it earned a handful of Emmy nominations and some dedicated fans. However, the show also apparently cost a staggering $7 to $8.5 million per episode, Vulture reports, a shockingly high sum for a series that likely didn't have a high enough viewership to justify the cost. “The Bloodline cancellation is the surest sign yet the company has started balancing its big spending with some strategic retreats,” the article notes—something that wasn’t happening in years before.

“We’re having conversations now where Netflix is saying, ‘Wow, we really love that show. It feels too expensive,’” a studio executive previously told Vulture.

Tapping Spike Lee is an interesting move that aligns with what seems to be Netflix’s current agenda. The streaming service is once again nabbing a director with serious highbrow clout, but also one who's not known for staggeringly high budgets. Chi-Raq was reportedly made for a modest $15 million, and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus was made on a tight $1.4 million. If there's someone who will make the most of Netflix’s boundless budgetary reserve, it’s Lee.
 
First look Photos. I think it's cool they made Mars Blackmon Puerto Rican in this version.
Nola1.jpg


Nola2.jpg


Nola3.jpg


nola4.jpg


nola5.jpg


nola6.jpg


nola7.jpg
 
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