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‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’: Lee Daniels Producing Spy Drama For FX With Gerard McMurray Directing The Pilot

‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’: Lee Daniels Producing Spy Drama For FX With Gerard McMurray Directing The Pilot
Lee Daniels is moving into the spy genre, according to The Hollywood Reporter, as he’ll executive produce a series adaptation of the Sam Greenlee novel “The Spook Who Sat By Door” with “The First Purge” director Gerard McMurray handling the show’s pilot. Leigh Dana Jackson will be the series showrunner, writer, and executive producer on the CIA project. Jackson previously worked on “24: Legacy” and Apple TV+‘s ambitious sci-fi series “Foundation,” an adaptation of the beloved literary universe created by visionary author Isaac Asimov.

Read More: ‘Stealth’: Lee Daniels To Direct Superhero Film From The Creator Of ‘The Walking Dead’

Daniels is best known for “Precious,” “The Bulter,” the Fox series “Empire,” and his upcoming directorial effort “The United States vs.

Continue reading ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’: Lee Daniels Producing Spy Drama For FX With Gerard McMurray Directing The Pilot at The Playlist.
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‘Spook Who Sat by the Door’ Pilot Set at FX From Lee Daniels, Leigh Dana Jackson, Gerard McMurray

‘Spook Who Sat by the Door’ Pilot Set at FX From Lee Daniels, Leigh Dana Jackson, Gerard McMurray
FX has ordered a pilot for a series adaptation of Sam Greenlee’s spy novel “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” Variety has learned.

The adaptation of the book will be written by Leigh Dana Jackson, who will also serve as executive producer and showrunner. Lee Daniels and Marc Velez will also executive produce on behalf of Lee Daniels Entertainment. The book was originally optioned through the Daniels’ Inclusion Fund. Gerard McMurray will direct the pilot in addition to executive producing. 20th Television will produce.

“’The Spook Who Sat By the Door’ was my dad’s favorite book,” said Daniels. “He’d be so proud that I’m doing this and even prouder that I’m doing this with Gerard and Dana—two bold and brilliant Black storytellers.”

“The Spook Who Sat By The Door” was previously adapted into a film in 1973 with Lawrence Cook in the lead role.
See full article at Variety »

Lee Daniels’ ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door’ Pilot Ordered by FX

Lee Daniels’ ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door’ Pilot Ordered by FX
FX has picked up a pilot for a series adaptation of Sam Greenlee’s “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” the cable network announced Monday. Lee Daniels will executive produce the series.

The 1969 novel tells the fictional story of the first Black CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s. Greenlee’s book, considered a major work of the Black nationalist movement during the civil rights era, was previously adapted for the screen in 1973, with Lawrence Cook starring as the novel’s protagonist, Dan Freeman.

Per FX, “The story chronicles the quest of Freeman, who was recruited as part of an affirmative-action program. After a very competitive selection process he trains in high-level combat and espionage. However, following this arduous training, this model recruit is rewarded with a post in the reprographics (aka photocopying) department, ‘left by the door’ as a token of the CIA’s ‘racial equality.
See full article at The Wrap »

FX To Pilot ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’ From Lee Daniels, Leigh Dana Jackson & Gerard McMurray

FX To Pilot ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’ From Lee Daniels, Leigh Dana Jackson & Gerard McMurray
FX is moving forward with its adaptation of The Spook Who Sat By the Door – ordering a pilot for the project.

The project, which is exec produced by Lee Daniels, was written by Foundation and Raising Dion co-exec producer Leigh Dana Jackson and will be directed by The Twilight Zone and The First Purge director Gerard McMurray.

Produced by 20th Television and optioned through Lee Daniels’ Inclusion Fund, it comes almost 18 months after Deadline revealed the project was in development.

Based on Sam Greenlee’s spy novel, the series will look at the fictional story of Dan Freeman, the first African American CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s.

The story chronicles the quest of Freeman, who was recruited as part of an affirmative-action program. After a very competitive selection process he trains in high-level combat and espionage. However, following this arduous training, this model recruit is
See full article at Deadline »

Lee Daniels Bringing Spy Drama ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door’ to FX

Lee Daniels Bringing Spy Drama ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door’ to FX
Lee Daniels is expanding his Disney footprint to FX.

The Empire co-creator is attached to executive produce The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a spy drama that has been ordered to pilot at the Disney-backed basic cable network.

Leigh Dana Jackson (Raising Dion, Foundation) penned the script and will serve as showrunner on the drama, which is based on the novel by Sam Greenlee. Gerard McMurray (Burning Sands) will exec produce and direct the pilot. Daniels will exec produce the potential series via his overall deal with Disney’s 20th Television. The book was optioned through Daniels’ inclusion fund....
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter »

In ‘Red White, and Blue,’ Steve McQueen Exhibits One of His Most Exciting Modes as a Director: Cool Anger

In ‘Red White, and Blue,’ Steve McQueen Exhibits One of His Most Exciting Modes as a Director: Cool Anger
The confused, frightened, complying face of a young black boy as two Metropolitan police stop, search, and humiliate him on the street: This is one of the first things we see in Red, White, and Blue, the third in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe pentalogy, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. It’s an image that grows even more charged in hindsight, a few scenes (spanning years) later, when the boy’s father — who’d swooped in to save him in that earlier encounter — is badly beaten by the police
See full article at Rolling Stone »

Claudine

Claudine
Easily the best family-oriented black experience movie of the early 1970s, the Third World Cinema Corporation’s first film features Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones in a funny, endearing saga of life in the welfare system, with human feeling and compassion to spare. But the triumphant socially progressive movie fails the 2020 diversity test — its primary producer, cameraman, writers and director are white. Are we still allowed to enjoy it?

Claudine

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1052

1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 13, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Diahann Carroll, James Earl Jones, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Tamu Blackwell, David Kruger, Yvette Curtis, Eric Jones, Socorro Stephens.

Cinematography: Gayne Rescher

Film Editor: Louis San Andres

Original Music: Curtis Mayfield

Written by Lester Pine and Tina Pine

Produced by J. Lloyd Grant, Hannah Weinstein

Directed by John Berry

In 1974 Claudine impressed this viewer quite a bit. I hadn’t seen many really good
See full article at Trailers from Hell »

NYFF: Laura Dern's first leading role and a lost Blaxploitation treasure

NYFF: Laura Dern's first leading role and a lost Blaxploitation treasure
Sean Donovan looks at two films from NYFF's "Revivals" section...

The major film festivals of the world, New York included, take as much responsibility for cinema’s past as its future. Alongside new hyped arthouse projects, festivals program curios from the past that may have fallen through the cracks or not received their due recognition in their day. In other instances, festivals re-deploy older films to the contemporary moment in an act of deliberate commentary, the film speaking to culture in a way that feels freshly vital for 2020 (that is certainly the case of one of the selections profiled here). Over the past weekend, New York Film Fest virtual cinema uploaded two of their revival selections, Joyce Chopra’s Sundance-winning drama Smooth Talk (1985) and a Blaxploitation cult film The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973). Both are canny, fascinating picks from the NYFF, and well worth the revisit in 2020...
See full article at FilmExperience »

Gone With the Wind and the damaging effect of Hollywood racism

Gone With the Wind and the damaging effect of Hollywood racism
The temporary removal of the Oscar-winning drama is renewing a conversation about the film industry’s murky past and its effect on society at large

There is a scene in 1974’s underground blaxploitation-era film The Spook Who Sat by the Door where a group of black militants comically mock the ubiquity of Gone With the Wind-like imagery that is so embedded within American culture. As the others laugh out loud at the performative racism essential to this historical representation, the film’s main character, Freeman, expounds on the larger meaning of such things: “You have just played out the American Dream. And now we’re going to turn it into a nightmare.”

Related: Gone With the Wind dropped from HBO Max over depiction of slavery
See full article at The Guardian - Film News »

Stream of the Day: 10 Films to Watch in Support of Black Liberation

Stream of the Day: 10 Films to Watch in Support of Black Liberation
The rage and anger at police violence and systemic racism is not just a week, a year, or even decades old. It is centuries in the making. And in order to understand and meaningfully contribute to the movement, audiences will need to educate themselves on the racist and socioeconomic inequities that nurture the environment that allows these injustices to thrive.

From Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), to Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” filmmakers have tackled this subject with tense and angry films made in reaction to the status quo. They unpack the onscreen racist ideology that began with D.W. Griffith’s incendiary “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), and highlight the realities of a society in which racial disparities permeate and undermine an entire system’s effectiveness.

These are bold and provocative films that serve as overdue tonic for a society that has long been saturated with incomplete depictions of black people,
See full article at Indiewire »

HBO Max, ‘Antlers’ Producer Developing Feature Based On Stephen King and Joe Hill’s ‘Throttle’ Novella

HBO Max, ‘Antlers’ Producer Developing Feature Based On Stephen King and Joe Hill’s ‘Throttle’ Novella
Exclusive: HBO Max is in the early development stage of a feature adaptation for the Trottle novella, which was co-written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, who is the Nyt bestselling author of The Fireman and Strange Weather. Leigh Dana Jackson, a co-executive producer on the Netflix series Raising Dion, will write the screenplay, which will be produced by David S. Goyer and Keith Levine through their Phantom Four label.

Throttle follows a father and son led biker gang who get terrorized by a big rig truck on an isolated stretch of the American desert. The short story was first published in 2009 in an anthology titled He Is Legend and was followed by a 2012 comic book adaptation from Idw Publishing.

Hill’s second novel, Horns, was made into a feature film starring Daniel Radcliffe, and his third one, NOS4A2, was adapted into a TV series on AMC with
See full article at Deadline »

Stream of the Day: 10 Black Films That Should Be Available on Streaming Platforms, but Aren’t

Stream of the Day: 10 Black Films That Should Be Available on Streaming Platforms, but Aren’t
Normally, IndieWire’s Stream of the Day feature focuses on movies that you can watch at home. Today, we’re using this space to call out a few that should be available, but aren’t. At one time or another, we have all probably experienced this frustrating conundrum: You want to watch a movie or TV show that sneaks its way into your consciousness, or was recommended by a trusted source, and, like most people, you first try the streaming services — especially in the current environment — but none of them carry it, not even as a rental or purchase on Amazon or iTunes. That’s especially true for films from black filmmakers.

For example, none of the films from key L.A. Rebellion filmmaker, Haile Gerima are available to stream on any platform, nor is Ivan Dixon’s classic “The Spook Who Sat By the Door” (1973), or Jessie Maple’s 1981 film “Will,
See full article at Indiewire »

Paula Kelly, 'Sweet Charity' Actress and Dancer, Dies at 77

Paula Kelly, 'Sweet Charity' Actress and Dancer, Dies at 77
Paula Kelly, the actress, singer and dancer who starred in the film version of Sweet Charity and earned an Emmy nomination for her turn on Night Court, has died. She was 77.

Kelly died Sunday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Whittier, California, a publicist for her family and Los Angeles' Ebony Repertory Theatre announced.

Kelly also appeared in such movies as The Andromeda Strain (1971), Cool Breeze (1972), Top of the Heap (1972), The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), Soylent Green (1973), Uptown Saturday Night (1974) — as Leggy Peggy — and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986).

After playing the dancer Helene ...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter »

Lee Daniels Ep’d ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’ Names ’24: Legacy’ Producer To Develop For FX

Lee Daniels Ep’d ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’ Names ’24: Legacy’ Producer To Develop For FX
Exclusive: The final season of Empire debuts tonight on Fox, but co-creator Lee Daniels is planning for the post-Lyons future with a new version of a seminal satire and thriller for FX.

Having optioned Sam Greenlee’s spy novel The Spook Who Sat By The Door in the summer of 2018 for a potential TV series, Lee Daniel’s production company has now named Leigh Dana Jackson to adopt the CIA tale for the small screen, I’ve learned. The 24: Legacy producer and Raising Dion co-ep will executive producer the intended series, as well as write it.

This new Tswsbtd is currently in development at the now Disney-owned John Landgraf-run cabler.

Having been born in 1969 as an acclaimed novel of the first African-American brought on board by the Agency and the tokenism and discrimination at the heart of that hire, the often scathing and provocative Tswsbtd was also made into a controversial 1973 film.
See full article at Deadline »

NYC Weekend Watch: Vincente Minnelli, Scorsese Double Features, 70mm & More

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

A Vincente Minnelli retrospective is underway.

The Cremator has been restored.

Alphaville and Holy Motors have late-night showings, while The Golden Voyage of Sinbad screens in the morning.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door plays on Sunday.

Film Forum

Martin Scorsese and Jay Cocks have curated a series of two-for one double features.
See full article at The Film Stage »

The Forgotten: Spook Show

Actor Ivan Dixon was a favorite of Rod Serling's, who cast him in The Twilight Zone twice. Dixon was black, and Serling fought to get minorities on TV in roles that weren't defined only by race. Dixon went on to become a prolific TV director himself, and made two features. Trouble Man (1972) is a not-particularly-ambitious blacksploitation pic that does everything it sets out to do with efficiency. The following year's The Spook Who Sat by the Door aims much, much higher, telling an epic, politically-charged story spanning years and leaping from Langley to Chicago. "Spook": racist epithet for an African American. Slang term for a spy. The set-up: a beleaguered politician decides to divert criticism by accusing the CIA of racism: they have no Black agents. So a recruitment drive is started, but many within the organization don't intend to allow any of the applicants to succeed. Most
See full article at MUBI »

Lee Daniels Entertainment Options Spy Novel ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’ For Series Development With Fox 21

Lee Daniels Entertainment has optioned Sam Greenlee’s spy novel The Spook Who Sat By The Door to develop as a series based on the book and the 1970s cult classic blakxpoitation film of the same name, with Fox 21 Television Studios.

A search is out for a writer. Based on the book, the potential series looks at the fictional story of Dan Freeman, the first African American CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s. The story chronicles the quest of Freeman, who was recruited as part of an affirmative-action program. After a very competitive selection process he trains in high-level combat and espionage. However, following this arduous training, this model recruit is rewarded with a post in the reprographics (aka photocopying) department, ‘left by the door’ as a token of the CIA’s ‘racial equality’.

Greenlee’s novel was first published in March 1969 by Allison & Busby in the UK,
See full article at Deadline »

NYC Weekend Watch: ‘Wanda,’ Fernando Birri, Female Pioneers, and More

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Godard’s work in the Dziga Vertov Group is the centerpiece of a new series.

A restoration of Wanda plays alongside McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Spook Who Sat By the Door.

Bam

A new series highlights the first female filmmakers.

Prints of Raging Bull and a (supposedly) worthwhile companion screen on Saturday.

Quad Cinema
See full article at The Film Stage »

The Spook Who Sat By The Door Screens at The St. Louis Public Library October 1st – ‘Banned Books Week’

“Cause it’s War, Honky!”

Celebrate Banned Books Week at the Central Library! The Spook Who Sat By The Door screens Saturday, October 1st at The St. Louis Public Library Central Branch (1301 Olive Street St. Louis) at 1pm as part of “Banned Books Week”. This is a Free event. The film will be introduced by Calvin Wilson from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and will be followed by Q & A led by Wilson.

In order to improve his standing with Black voters, a White Senator starts a campaign for the CIA to recruit Black agents. However, all are graded on a curve and doomed to fail, save for a soft-spoken veteran named Dan Freeman. After grueling training in guerrilla warfare, clandestine operations and unarmed combat, he is assigned a meager job as the CIA’s token Black employee. After five years of racist and stereotyped treatment by his superiors, he
See full article at WeAreMovieGeeks.com »
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