Spike Lee is about to get "Strange."
The director unveiled plans Wednesday (July 9) to turn the Broadway rock musical "Passing Strange" into a film, but unlike recent translations of theater onto the big screen, the film won't alter any of the cast, staging or production. In fact, it will be just like seeing the show in the theater, he promised, but with a twist.
"With 'Rent,' they didn't film the play, they made a movie," Lee said. "This is a hybrid."
"Does that mean you've given up on the idea of having Clint Eastwood play the father?" the show's creator, Mark "Stew" Stewart, asked jokingly, referring to the recent verbal sparring between the two filmmakers.
Lee promised he wouldn't be "getting in the way" of the production, which he said he loves. "I was knocked out when I saw it," he said. "I'd come back with Wesley Snipes and say, 'You gotta see this.' "
But Lee did promise he'd spice up the show with "things I've never done before, things you've never seen before," he teased. What things? "I can't say," he laughed. "Then it wouldn't be a surprise!"
"I feel like the last three years of my life have been like, 'If you could just write a play,' 'If you could just take the play to Broadway,' 'It would be really cool if you could just get Spike Lee to make a film out it,' " Stew said with a mock-stoner attitude. "Yeah, man, whatever."
"We're just going to dive in and do it," said the show's star, Daniel Breaker, who plays the unnamed youth at the center of the story. "I'm so looking forward to this."
"How often do you get to work with a genius, someone who changed the game?" Stew asked. "For Spike Lee to want to deal with our play is such an honor, more than all the awards we've gotten. Getting the 'Spike' award is huge."
Plus, Stew joked, the show's producers wanted to "give an emerging filmmaker a chance."
Lee plans to shoot the show four times — two with an audience, for the July 19 matinee and evening performances, and two without an audience, on July 20 and 21. The show's producers hope that longtime fans of the show return to attend the July 19 performances. "Tickets are on sale," Lee intoned in an announcer-type voice. "Operators are standing by now."
For the multiple shoots, Lee will be working with much of the crew from his recently completed "Miracle at St. Anna," including cinematographer Matthew Libatique ("Iron Man," "Inside Man"). "40 Acres [& a Mule, Lee's production company] will be in the house," the director said.
Because of the scale of the shoots, the show's producers said the budget was in the range of $2 million. "That's just for the catering, right?" Stew joked.
But what happens to the film once it's shot? Though there were rumors that the film version of "Passing Strange" would be shown on cable television, the show's producers said release and distribution — be it via cable television, film festivals, theaters or DVD — are issues that remain to be decided.
"The possibilities are open," Lee said. "I'm so confident that we're going to have our choice that it's not a concern to me right now. My job right now is to get the best material possible."
In the meantime, Stew has no immediate plans to create new music or material for possible DVD extras but hopes to address that soon. "Sure, there will be all sorts of fun things," he said, "when we get to that point."
"I just want to say: People need to see this show," Lee said. "Don't wait until I'm shooting it to see it."
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