Just two days after his death, James Brown’s biopic is hitting the fasttrack. Spike Lee has signed on to direct with Brian Grazer producing for Universal (the duo previously teamed up on INSIDE MAN). The studio hopes to have production underway next year but might not start filming until early 2008. Part of the reason for the delay is that Lee wants to rewrite a script that had previously been written by Jezz and John Henry Butterworth. Grazer said of the news, “It’s somehow not surprising that [Brown] died on Christmas Day. He was the ultimate showman, all the way to the end.” Lee’s next film will be about the LA riots (also produced by Grazer) and then would either start work on the James Brown film or direct a sequel to INSIDE MAN. Does INSIDE MAN really need a sequel, by the way? If you’re really hungering for some new Spike Lee, I’d suggest checking out his Hurricane Katrina documentary “When the Levees Broke” now on DVD.
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