EURweb |
SPIKE LEE DEVELOPS POST-KATRINA NBC DRAMA: 'NoLa' will feature multi-cultural cast and focus on rebuilding in New Orleans.
*Following his critically-acclaimed HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its sobering aftermath, filmmaker Spike Lee is developing a scripted drama for NBC set in New Orleans.
Titled "NoLa," the drama will feature a multi-cultural cast and explore the lives of New Orleans residents from various social and economic backgrounds in the wake of the disaster. Lee will executive produce and direct the project should NBC turn the pilot into a series.
The Brooklyn-born director, who will travel to New Orleans this week with screenwriter Sid Quashie to meet with residents, says the style of the pilot will mirror the feel of Italian neorealism, a 1942-52 movement in Italian cinema reflected in the work of Vittorio De Sica ("The Bicycle Thief") and Roberto Rossellini.
"It's our goal to make great cinema for television," Lee explained to the Associated Press. "It's a show about the city trying to rebuild itself and the people who are trying to put their lives together."
Like his HBO documentary, “NoLa” will include humor and some of the more colorful folk from “Levees” -- like Phyllis Montana LeBlanc -- as supporting characters or as fictional versions of themselves.
The pilot will be shot on location in New Orleans with minimal set design needed. Lee explains: "We don't have to build sets. Things there still look like the city's been bombed out."
