SPIKE LEE DANCING TO HIS OWN BEAT: Filmmaker embraces independence during award ceremony in Italy. Email to a friend | Print Friendly *In Italy Monday to receive the 41st Fiesole Masters of Cinema Award, filmmaker Spike Lee used the occasion to put Hollywood on blast for its portrayals of African Americans. He also took the Bush administration to task for its foreign policy, and threw darts at the film industry for leaving him on the outside looking in.
"My last feature film, 'Inside Man,' was my most successful so far, and I was naive enough to think that that meant I could go from there and make any film I wanted to make,” Lee told the crowd. “But I was very, very wrong about that. Anybody who thinks that I've become part of the mainstream doesn't understand the way it works.
" Speaking before a packed press conference at the Hotel Villa San Michelle in Fiesole (just outside Florence), the two-time Oscar nominee said he would win an Oscar only when he's so old he would have to be pushed onstage in a wheelchair, reports AP. On Tuesday, town Mayor Fabio Incatasciato will be among the dignitaries on hand to present Lee with the Masters of Cinema Award, which salutes a director's entire body of work. Lee becomes only the third American in 41 years to receive the honor, joining Orson Wells (1974) and Stanley Kubrick (1983).
Lee also used his time in Fiesole to scout locations for his next film Miracle at St. Anna," a $45 million World War II drama based on the James McBride novel about a Negro soldier in the 92nd all-black, segregated Buffalo Division. "I'm a big fan of World War II movies, but up until now I've only seen two that featured any black soldiers," Lee said.
"There was Jim Brown in 'Dirty Dozen' and (James Edwards), who was Gen. Patton's valet in 'Patton.' I know we can do better than that.
" McBride is also penning the screenplay and so far has written three “strong” drafts, Lee said. Filming will take place in Tuscany, Rome's Cinecitta Studios and New York. Currently, 0 comments have been made on this story.
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