He said young black males need more diverse role models than athletes and rap singers. Turning to larger issues, Lee said black filmmakers “must open up their vision” and not keep telling the same stories over and over again. He predicted that Washington would get an Academy Award for his performance as Malcolm X and, “If he doesn’t, we’ll burn the Academy down.”īut he also said that the Academy Award is a “popularity contest” and said it is voted on mostly by “white males over 50 years old.” Lee took pride in the fact that he was allowed to film in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, and said it was because the Islamic world considers Malcolm X a martyr. He also said the bond company just didn’t understand how difficult it would be finding 2,000 Arab extras in the United States. In one instance, Lee said, the bond company questioned why he needed to film in the Sahara desert when the Arizona sand dunes could work just as well. Nevertheless, once the bond company stepped in, Lee said, he clashed several times with company representatives over whether he could afford to send a film crew to Egypt with star Denzel Washington and shoot scenes that Lee said were crucial to the life of Malcolm X. themselves did their own budget calculations and estimated it would cost $35 million to make the picture. So Lee said he then submitted a revised budget of $33 million, which was subsequently lowered. He explained that he initially proposed a $40-million budget to Warner Bros., but studio executives reacted negatively. Lee has indicated that all along he thought the film would cost $33 million. Initially given a $28-million budget to work with, the costs soared to $33 million, prompting a Century City completion bond company to step in and take control of the film until it is finished. In recent weeks, Lee has been thrust into another controversy involving budget overruns on his film. Lee said he finally met Jewison and afterward the noted director “was happy I got to do the film.” was getting 100 letters a day protesting Norman Jewison directing the film.” He said Jewison accused him of mounting the letter writing campaign although “I had nothing to do with it.” Lee recalled that at the time he was fighting to direct the film, “Warner Bros. Most black people are suspicious of white people and their motives. “These people are very leery of opening up to white directors. He said that many of Malcolm X’s friends and former associates would not have cooperated with white filmmakers on the project. “Unless you are black, you do not know what it means to be a black person in this country.” “I had problems with a white director directing this film,” Lee said. Hollywood, he said, had initially wanted the film made with white directors like Norman Jewison. "When you see those dollar signs, it can influence what you're doing." An ultimately successful struggle to have his videos air on MTV (inhospitable to black artists in its early days) followed, as did darker and more personal challenges.īut Off the Wall arrived, as Lee puts it, "before things started turning around - when you could still hear Michael Jackson's joy.Much of what Lee told his largely white college audience centered on “Malcolm X” and the man whose extraordinary life and message Lee was trying to capture on film. While the album won Jackson a Grammy Award for best R&B vocal performance (for Don't Stop), it was ignored in the major categories. "After he got snubbed by the Grammys, he told his mother, 'I'm coming back next year,' " Lee says. Did you not see the Academy Award nominations?" "He would study everyone."īut if Off the Wall heralded the student's arrival as an artist who would be emulated himself, Lee posits it also began a cycle of frustrated aspiration, rooted at least partly in race: "Race is woven into everything in the United States of America. "Michael Jackson was a scholar of art," Lee says. The archival footage includes admirers such as Gene Kelly and Sammy Davis Jr. 26 - latter-day stars and innovators such as Pharrell Williams, The Weeknd, Questlove, John Legend and ballet dancer Misty Copeland testify to Jackson's multifaceted performance skills and enduring influence. In Lee's new documentary - also available in CD/DVD/Blu-ray packages with the reissued album, out Feb. that were unlike anything people had heard before." "They complemented each other's strengths."Īdds veteran music journalist and author Alan Light, "This incredibly layered sound they came up with, with these complicated but undeniable grooves that Quincy was constructing. "It was a marriage made in heaven," Lee says.
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