In a perfect world, Spike Lee would be promoting his upcoming Netflix film, “Da 5 Bloods,” ahead of its June premiere and prepping to begin filming of his next feature, “Prince of Cats,” which he describes as “Romeo and Juliette during the age of hip-hop.” But COVID-19 had other plans, and even though Netflix is still moving forward with the June release of his next feature, the future is unclear, as he reveals in a new interview with Vanity Fair.
Speaking to the outlet, Lee explained that filming of “Prince of Cats” isn’t happening this summer, and honestly, he doesn’t know when he’s going to be back on a film set. Or in a movie theater. Or even a Broadway show or Yankees game. COVID-19 has severely changed the life of the New York-based filmmaker and he’s concerned that nothing is going to happen in the film industry until there’s a vaccine.
“They ain’t doing a thing until the vaccine,” said the filmmaker. “I know I’m not going to a movie theater. I know I’m not going to a Broadway show. I know I’m not going to Yankee Stadium.”
He added, “Corona is a bitch. Corona is not playing. You fuck around you’re going to get killed, you’re going to die. I’m not ready to go.”
More than just the large crowds, Lee sees a problem with all sorts of scenes during filmmaker, particularly love scenes.
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“How are you going to do a love scene anymore, or an intimate scene?” Lee asked. “I mean, are you going to do a movie by remote, like ‘Saturday Night Live?’… I don’t know how you do that. So, we’re on pause now.”
To answer one of his questions, we’ve seen how NBC does ‘SNL’ in the age of COVID-19—remote shows via Zoom that are, uh, not great. As for how film sets will handle love scenes or crowd scenes? That’s just part of the problem, as are the crew members and everyone else that is in close proximity on a film set. That is to say, we’ll just have to wait and see.
But in regards to cinemas, Lee isn’t alone with worrying about attending films on the big screen. Theater chains have already said they’re going to bend over backward to make sure locations are sanitized constantly and that every precaution is taken care of, but even then, there are folks like Spike Lee that don’t want to risk getting a life-threatening illness to go see the latest Christopher Nolan film.
“Da 5 Bloods” is set to be released on Netflix on June 12, viewable from the comfort of your own home.
