Spike Lee at Sundance: Studios "know nothing about black people"
(CBS) Director Spike Lee went on a tirade during a Q&A after the screening of his new film, "Red Hook Summer," Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival, according to reports.
Lee launched into an expletive-filled rant about Hollywood executives after actor Chris Rock asked how the movie would have looked if it had been made by a big studio. "Would you have blown things up?" he said, according to the Los Angeles Times, completely deadpan.
"We never went to the studios with this film, Chris," the veteran director said. "I told you, we're gonna do this motherf---ing film ourselves! The plan was to make the film, bring it to Sundance, and ... "
He then stopped and apologized to Sundance chief John Cooper, explaining that he was going to show him the film first, according to Reuters.
Then he continued saying, " I didn't want to hear no motherf----ing notes from the studio telling me...about what a young 13-year-old boy and girl would do in Red Hook. F--k no."
"They know nothing about black people. Nothing!"
Lee's film follows a boy from Atlanta who spends the summer in Brooklyn with his grandfather, whom he's never seen before.
