Monday, September 11, 2006

Spike Lee does New Orleans (again)

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Spike Lee plans to follow up When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts -- his monumental documentary about Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans -- with a scripted TV drama about life and strife in a post-Katrina Big Easy. Tentatively titled NoLa -- local slang for New Orleans, Louisiana, get it? -- the proposed NBC series is being described as a multicultural ensemble piece that will follow the lives of N.O. residents from various racial and economic backgrounds. But wait, there's more: Lee promises NoLa will be filmed in the gritty, semi-documentary style of such Italian Neorealist classics as Open City and The Bicycle Thief. And like those films, the TV series will use non-professional actors -- including, possibly, Katrina survivors profiled in When the Levees Broke -- in supporting roles. Sounds promising.

BTW: On Saturday, When the Levees Broke received the prize for Best Documentary at the Venice Film Festival.

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