Greetings from L.A.,

i mean--does it really
>matter? he seems to think
>so. he says since major
>studio's ixnayed his 80 million
>jackie robinson idea he's become
>somewhat bitter/angrier (

Films get tossed all the time. Few 80 million dollar picthes get approved. Especially with a director like Spike's track record. Who would go see this film? As many people as packed the theatres for Bamboozled? I see why "Hollywood" tossed it.

So, it seems Spike is saying if he could have done the Robinson film, we wouldn't have Bamboozled? If Hollywood ok'd his Jackie idea, he would have been happy and felt no need to do Bamboozled? That's ironic.

which
>needless to say was humiliating.
>at first it was cool.
>sheeeit i'm in a spike
>lee joint.

You'd go through something humiliating just to be in a Spike Lee film? Sounds like what Mantan did.

but soon afterwards.
>shit just became....too painful.

I could see if he was prepping you for the part. If you had lines. To make someone without lines go through that seems weird to me.

>i felt that spike is
>the only person who could
>make this happen.

Only because he didn't get his Jackie movie? He got Malcolm X and it flopped. Hollywood is not in the business of losing money. He's also not known as a good writer. How do we know the Jackie Robinson script just didn't bite? What if it was horrible? "That's just Spike's style" doesn't mean everyone understands it, thus, it doesn't mean it will make money. The theatre was empty when I went to see Bamboozled. Who is to blame? Who should Spike really be mad at? If we all went to Bamboozled in droves, you can bet somehow his Jackie idea would be tightened and put on screen.

any other
>black directors are too busy
>living by that "one strike
>and you're out" law that
>hollywood puts on us.

All other directors except Spike would be too scared to make Bamboozled? How long have you been in Hollywood? I take offense to that. How did Spike finance Bamboozled?

Akin to the music business, some of this is more complicated than you think. No, Common isn't selling out by making Macy Gray / Erykah tracks. No, neither are you by letting car dealers use your music. So, please don't characterize all black directors as being too busy living by some rules that are much more intricate than you know.

Signed,

Been there, done that.