Saturday, May 2, 2009

Spike TV!

Legendary director's new project finds a distributor

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

At New York City's 7-year-old Tribeca Film Festival--held this year from April 22 until today (May 3)--Spike Lee's Passing Strange was picked up by PBS' TV program Great Performances, which will air the film sometime next year.

Adapted from Mark "Stew" Stewart's Broadway rock musical of the same name, Passing Strange follows a young African-American musician in the late-'70s, destined to rebel against his mother and the church life he's become accustomed to. He leaves L.A. and journies to Amsterdam and then Berlin, playing his music, and experimenting with drugs, sex, and immoral behaviour, before making his way back home.

Spike Lee, 52, became an instant fan of the Tony-winning musical, insisting on adapting the show into film "for generations and generations to see." Premiering last January at the Sundance Film Festival, Passing Strange may first get a chance for a limited theatrical run later this year, before heading to PBS in 2010.

Passing Strange, the movie, stars unknown newcomers De'Adre Aziza (Miracle at St. Anna), Daniel Breaker, and Chad Goodridge, in addition to TV actor Colman Domingo (Freedomland), while Stew narrates.

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