While Spike Lee has conquered both the big and small screen with feature films and documentaries, when it comes to television series', he's had far less luck. In 2004 he tried to get "Sucker Free City" up over at Showtime, a series that would've chronicled the disparate groups at play in the gentrification of San Francisco. After a two hour pilot (which wound up being screened at TIFF) it didn't go much further. And it seems another small screen effort has been put on hold before it ever really got started.
Deadline reports that HBO has passed on the pilot for "Da Brick," which would've been led by "Attack The Block" star John Boyega. In the works last year, the show found Lee teaming with “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin, with Mike Tyson acting as a producer. The Story is set in Newark, New Jersey and is partially inspired by Tyson's youth, chronicling what it's like to be a young, black American man in a supposedly "post-racial" United States. Boyega would've played Donnie, one of the central characters who is released from juvie on his 18th birthday and begins his life.
That actually sounds potentially great, and surely would've been a breakout role for Boyega, but alas, it seems it will never see the light of day. No word yet on if Lee will try and shop the show elsewhere or will simply move on, but we hope there is a lifeline left for this one. Regardless, the director has plenty on his plate including the forthcoming "Red Hook Summer" which he tweeted will be released in early August.
