Tony Sokol Dec 1, 2017
Warner Bros is pursuing a new take on the 1970s hit, Super Fly...
Super Fly is the latest movie to get a remake, it's been revealed. And it's got a bit of a bar to live up to.
Curtis Mayfield’s soundtrack for the 1972 classic street hustler film Super Fly was as cinematic as the movie it was recorded for, for example. The title track and the song “Freddy’s Dead” bounced off the sidewalks of America and soared on the charts. Songs like “Pusherman” and “Little Child” were heartbreaking snippets of the dual realities of uptown street life.
The screenplay for Super Fly will be written by Alex Tse, who wrote Watchmen and Spike Lee’s under-appreciated Sucker Free City. The director and star hasn’t been named yet. But the big question, for this writer, is who will score?
Video of Pusherman Scene - Super Fly...
Warner Bros is pursuing a new take on the 1970s hit, Super Fly...
Super Fly is the latest movie to get a remake, it's been revealed. And it's got a bit of a bar to live up to.
Curtis Mayfield’s soundtrack for the 1972 classic street hustler film Super Fly was as cinematic as the movie it was recorded for, for example. The title track and the song “Freddy’s Dead” bounced off the sidewalks of America and soared on the charts. Songs like “Pusherman” and “Little Child” were heartbreaking snippets of the dual realities of uptown street life.
The screenplay for Super Fly will be written by Alex Tse, who wrote Watchmen and Spike Lee’s under-appreciated Sucker Free City. The director and star hasn’t been named yet. But the big question, for this writer, is who will score?
Video of Pusherman Scene - Super Fly...
- 11/30/2017
- Den of Geek
While Spike Lee has conquered both the big and small screen with feature films and documentaries, when it comes to television series', he's had far less luck. In 2004 he tried to get "Sucker Free City" up over at Showtime, a series that would've chronicled the disparate groups at play in the gentrification of San Francisco. After a two hour pilot (which wound up being screened at Tiff) it didn't go much further. And it seems another small screen effort has been put on hold before it ever really got started.
Deadline reports that HBO has passed on the pilot for "Da Brick," which would've been led by "Attack The Block" star John Boyega. In the works last year, the show found Lee teaming with “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin, with Mike Tyson acting as a producer. The Story is set in Newark, New Jersey and is partially inspired by Tyson's youth,...
Deadline reports that HBO has passed on the pilot for "Da Brick," which would've been led by "Attack The Block" star John Boyega. In the works last year, the show found Lee teaming with “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin, with Mike Tyson acting as a producer. The Story is set in Newark, New Jersey and is partially inspired by Tyson's youth,...
- 3/14/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
By Sean O’Connell
hollywoodnews.com: Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale will announce the nominees for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 8 a.m. at The London West Hollywood Hotel, it was revealed today by Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival.
As previously announced, the 27th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will be held at the beach in Santa Monica on Saturday, Feb. 25.
The premiere broadcast of the ceremony will air later that evening at 10 p.m. Et/Pt on IFC.
Bios on each actor, from a release:
Anthony Mackie was classically trained at the Julliard School of Drama and was discovered playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway play “Up Against the Wind.” He made his film debut in Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile and proceeded to garner roles in Spike Lee’s Sucker Free City and She Hate Me,...
hollywoodnews.com: Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale will announce the nominees for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 8 a.m. at The London West Hollywood Hotel, it was revealed today by Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival.
As previously announced, the 27th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will be held at the beach in Santa Monica on Saturday, Feb. 25.
The premiere broadcast of the ceremony will air later that evening at 10 p.m. Et/Pt on IFC.
Bios on each actor, from a release:
Anthony Mackie was classically trained at the Julliard School of Drama and was discovered playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway play “Up Against the Wind.” He made his film debut in Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile and proceeded to garner roles in Spike Lee’s Sucker Free City and She Hate Me,...
- 11/22/2011
- by Sean O'Connell
- Hollywoodnews.com
Now that the legal dispute between Relativity Media and the Weinsteins has more-or-less gone away, Relativity are once again moving forward with their Crow reboot. Alex Tse is the latest writer to be tasked with re-adapting James O'Barr's original graphic novel.Tse doesn't have a great many credits on his CV, but the one that got him the gig was presumably a little thing called Watchmen, for which he has a co-writer credit with David Hayter. He's also penned as-yet un-produced adaptations of Ninja Scroll, The Phantom Tollbooth and The Illustrated Man, and Spike Lee's TV movie Sucker Free City. And he's known as a script doctor, reportedly providing uncredited polishes for the Step Up films and House of Wax.The Crow is, of course, the story of rocker Eric Draven, murdered along with his girlfriend, and returning from the grave as a goth'd up avenger to right that wrong.
- 6/23/2011
- EmpireOnline
Relativity's planned reboot of The Crow has found it's writer. Alex Tse (Watchmen) has been hired to write the script, Variety reports. The film will be directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later). As we reported, Bradley Cooper is attached to star in the film.
The reboot is planned as "a gritty reboot of the iconic gothic character Eric Draven, who returns from the grave on a mission to avenge his wife's murder so that his soul can rest." The production will be a joint venture between Relativity and Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation along with Spain-based Apaches Entertainment.
Tse has been very busy lately. He worked recently on adapting the graphic novel Battling Boy for Paramount and Brad Pitt's Plan B, penned a remake of Ninja Scroll for Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's production co. Appian Way. In addition, he wrote Gangland for Joel Silver's Dark...
The reboot is planned as "a gritty reboot of the iconic gothic character Eric Draven, who returns from the grave on a mission to avenge his wife's murder so that his soul can rest." The production will be a joint venture between Relativity and Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation along with Spain-based Apaches Entertainment.
Tse has been very busy lately. He worked recently on adapting the graphic novel Battling Boy for Paramount and Brad Pitt's Plan B, penned a remake of Ninja Scroll for Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's production co. Appian Way. In addition, he wrote Gangland for Joel Silver's Dark...
- 6/22/2011
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
Screened Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Spike Lee gets uncomfortably close to the grass roots of gang culture in America in Sucker Free City. Focusing on a diverse group of mostly young characters in three San Francisco districts, Lee, working from a rock-solid script from Alex Tse, portrays a volatile subculture that's easy to get sucked into but damn near impossible to quit.
Reverting from recent form, where Lee used overstatement and bombast to make his points, the subtle though tough-minded approach to an unnerving subject here makes this one of the best films In Lee's career. He shot the film for Showtime, but here's hoping that Sucker Free City receives more festival exposure and theatrical playdates.
The white Wade family, gentrified out of a once affordable home in the now trendy Mission District, must move to the neglected, mostly black community of Hunters Point. There they suffer daily confrontations with the vicious V-Dub gang, especially the taunts of hotheaded Leon (Malieek Straughter).
Nick Wade (Ben Crowley), 19, is anxious to move up in the corporate world but must please execs by arranging drug deals and supplement his meager salary with credit card fraud.
K-Luv (Anthony Mackie), a gangbanger with a more stable personality, tries to get Leon off the Wade family's back. He sees Nick, a computer-savvy guy, as someone who can help him in getting into the business of bootleg CDs.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing between the black gang and the Grant Street Boys, a Chinatown gang, over control of this pirated music. Lincoln Ma (Ken Leung), who collects protection money for a triad crime boss, is playing a double game of jeopardy: He skims money off the top of his collections even as he conducts a clandestine affair with the boss' beloved daughter (T.V. Carpio).
The plot threads allow us to crisscross town to survey the current state of street gang culture in San Francisco. While judging no one, Lee and Tse paint a grim portrait of a world that refuses to change, as it pulls each new generation into a tragic vortex of crime and destroyed lives. They make no bones about the allure of this dangerous milieu or why kids look up to gangsters glorified by rap music and "respected" by people on the street.
Mackie's K-Luv is the closest thing to the film's conscience. A criminal and killer, he nevertheless tries to steer kids toward education and looks for low-risk crime. Crowley's Nick and Leung's Lincoln Ma both are searching desperately to improve their social condition but know no means other than crime.
Cinematographer Cesar R. Charlone shifts color schemes to fit the mood and style of the film's different worlds. Colors often are supersaturated, especially in Chinatown
other times color drains away, bathing, for example, high-rise offices in blue, gray and white.
Barry Alexander Brown's editing is crisp, as is Lee's direction within each scene. Some may wish that Lee had subtitled the V-Dub street lingo just as he does the Cantonese, but the point is always clear: In Sucker Free City, no one knows it, but everyone is a sucker.
SUCKER FREE CITY
Showtime
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Credits:
Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Alex Tse
Producer: Preston Holmes
Executive producers: Spike Lee, Sam Kitt
Director of photography: Cesar R. Charlone
Production designer: Kitty Douris-Bates
Music: Terence Blanchard
Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Cast:
Nick Wade: Ben Crowley
Lincoln Ma: Ken Leung
K-Luv: Anthony Mackie
Sleepy: Darris Love
Laura Wade: Samantha Wade
Angela: T.V. Carpio
Leon: Malieek Straughter
Anderson Wade: John Savage
Cleo Wade: Kathy Baker
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 116 minutes...
TORONTO -- Spike Lee gets uncomfortably close to the grass roots of gang culture in America in Sucker Free City. Focusing on a diverse group of mostly young characters in three San Francisco districts, Lee, working from a rock-solid script from Alex Tse, portrays a volatile subculture that's easy to get sucked into but damn near impossible to quit.
Reverting from recent form, where Lee used overstatement and bombast to make his points, the subtle though tough-minded approach to an unnerving subject here makes this one of the best films In Lee's career. He shot the film for Showtime, but here's hoping that Sucker Free City receives more festival exposure and theatrical playdates.
The white Wade family, gentrified out of a once affordable home in the now trendy Mission District, must move to the neglected, mostly black community of Hunters Point. There they suffer daily confrontations with the vicious V-Dub gang, especially the taunts of hotheaded Leon (Malieek Straughter).
Nick Wade (Ben Crowley), 19, is anxious to move up in the corporate world but must please execs by arranging drug deals and supplement his meager salary with credit card fraud.
K-Luv (Anthony Mackie), a gangbanger with a more stable personality, tries to get Leon off the Wade family's back. He sees Nick, a computer-savvy guy, as someone who can help him in getting into the business of bootleg CDs.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing between the black gang and the Grant Street Boys, a Chinatown gang, over control of this pirated music. Lincoln Ma (Ken Leung), who collects protection money for a triad crime boss, is playing a double game of jeopardy: He skims money off the top of his collections even as he conducts a clandestine affair with the boss' beloved daughter (T.V. Carpio).
The plot threads allow us to crisscross town to survey the current state of street gang culture in San Francisco. While judging no one, Lee and Tse paint a grim portrait of a world that refuses to change, as it pulls each new generation into a tragic vortex of crime and destroyed lives. They make no bones about the allure of this dangerous milieu or why kids look up to gangsters glorified by rap music and "respected" by people on the street.
Mackie's K-Luv is the closest thing to the film's conscience. A criminal and killer, he nevertheless tries to steer kids toward education and looks for low-risk crime. Crowley's Nick and Leung's Lincoln Ma both are searching desperately to improve their social condition but know no means other than crime.
Cinematographer Cesar R. Charlone shifts color schemes to fit the mood and style of the film's different worlds. Colors often are supersaturated, especially in Chinatown
other times color drains away, bathing, for example, high-rise offices in blue, gray and white.
Barry Alexander Brown's editing is crisp, as is Lee's direction within each scene. Some may wish that Lee had subtitled the V-Dub street lingo just as he does the Cantonese, but the point is always clear: In Sucker Free City, no one knows it, but everyone is a sucker.
SUCKER FREE CITY
Showtime
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Credits:
Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Alex Tse
Producer: Preston Holmes
Executive producers: Spike Lee, Sam Kitt
Director of photography: Cesar R. Charlone
Production designer: Kitty Douris-Bates
Music: Terence Blanchard
Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Cast:
Nick Wade: Ben Crowley
Lincoln Ma: Ken Leung
K-Luv: Anthony Mackie
Sleepy: Darris Love
Laura Wade: Samantha Wade
Angela: T.V. Carpio
Leon: Malieek Straughter
Anderson Wade: John Savage
Cleo Wade: Kathy Baker
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 116 minutes...
- 9/14/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Showtime has picked up Mike Newell's drama pilot Huff to series, sources said. The Sony Pictures Television project stars Hank Azaria as Craig Huffstodt, a psychiatrist suffering a midlife crisis. Oliver Platt, Paget Brewster and Blythe Danner co-star in the show, which is written by Bob Lowry and executive produced by Newell, Lowry and Cam Jones. Huff marks the first series greenlighted by Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's new entertainment president . The show's two-hour pilot was one of three pilots put into production in early 2003 by Greenblatt's predecessor, Jerry Offsay, along with Paradise and Spike Lee's SFC. Showtime declined comment late Friday.
- 12/15/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Showtime has picked up Mike Newell's drama pilot Huff to series, sources said. The Sony Pictures Television project stars Hank Azaria as Craig Huffstodt, a psychiatrist suffering a midlife crisis. Oliver Platt, Paget Brewster and Blythe Danner co-star in the show, which is written by Bob Lowry and executive produced by Newell, Lowry and Cam Jones. Huff marks the first series greenlighted by Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's new entertainment president . The show's two-hour pilot was one of three pilots put into production in early 2003 by Greenblatt's predecessor, Jerry Offsay, along with Paradise and Spike Lee's SFC. Showtime declined comment late Friday.
- 12/14/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.