Speaking at the Sundance Film Festival, Spike Lee had a chance to chill with the folks at MTV News, who were interested in pursuing a non-rumor about Will Smith starring in a fish-in-a-barrell Barack Obama movie. “Not doing it,” he tells MTV, adding, “it’s not an interest for me. I’d love to see them, but it’s not something I want to do.”
Chances are, Lee was responding more to the unimaginative idea that he’d be the right man to tackle this prospective movie that no one has written, greenlit, or even pitched. Lee’s still stinging from the critical reception to last year’s “Miracle At St. Anna” and it looks like he’s going to go to the Soderbergh well with the one-for-them “Inside Man 2” but he’s not ready for the cheap shot of working with Will Smith, who Lee half-jokingly claims wants to run for president himself. Worth noting is that Lee has never worked on a project with Smith- more telling, the directors Smith has worked with in the last five years are Alex Proyas, Andy Tennant, Gabriele Muccino, Francis Lawrence and Peter Berg. Wethinks Smith is not looking to work with a director he can’t impose his will over anytime soon.