As we wrote last week, Eddie Murphy has been chosen to play Marion Barry in a Spike Lee-directed biopic on the mayor-for-life. So far, Barry has been quiet on this choice, but given this tweet he sent Lee on Sunday night, he must want to give the acclaimed director at least 140 characters of his mind on the matter.
It was somewhat inevitable — there have been books written about him, he’s been a part of a reality show (about himself) and HBO made a well-received documentary about his political career and legacy. So it was only really a matter of time before someone thought to make a movie about Marion Barry. But should Eddie Murphy star?
DCist caught up with film director Spike Lee this morning at Pepsi’s Refresh the World Symposium at Howard University, where he had lots to say about D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. “I had never heard of the woman before that magazine cover,” he told us, referring to her Time profile, “but she has it. Whatever she says, I’m behind. We need radical thinking, the same okie-doke isn’t going to get it. For kids, no…
DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Trouble the Water One of the hottest tickets of the SILVERDOCS film festival earlier this year was Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s moving documentary on Hurricane Katrina, which we reviewed in June. The buzz beforehand was that the pair had broken the mold in their look at the tragedy, giving viewers a rare look at things…
Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard (pictured right) is a friend to D.C. The New Orleans native chose Blues Alley as the spot to release his latest CD, A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina). Though he is a celebrated bandleader and performer, he has also been quietly making his mark in the film world as Spike Lee’s chief musical collaborator. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., the Kennedy Center will host Terence Blanchard for what…
D.C. has been the homebase for its share of musical luminaries. Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, and Bad Brains come to mind for their efforts in their respective genres. Right in this mix should be the man called the “Godfather of Go-Go,” Chuck Brown. For non-native Washingtonians, go-go is likely foreign and only experienced during the urban radio stations’ “go-go hours” or Brown’s D.C. Lottery commercials. However, go-go is D.C.’s music, Chuck Brown is D.C.’s musician,…
This month marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s assault upon the city of New Orleans. The suffering and hardship of that city’s citizens no longer makes headlines, but the havoc caused by the storm is something many people still live with on a daily basis. Jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is one of those people. A son of the Crescent City and musical descendant of fellow New Orleanians Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, and…
The sprawling anthology—wherein we follow a large number of characters as their lives overlap but rarely intersect directly—has been a constant presence at the movies for years. Although the genre was once an exclusive territory to which Robert Altman seemed to own the only set of keys, since the mid-90s, Quentin Tarantino, P.T. Anderson, and Alejandro González Iñárritu have all followed this loose pattern to big success—the producers of 2004’s Crash even got a Best…
MONDAY: >> Drugs Are Nice, according to Lisa Crystal Carver, who pens the trials and travails of being a member of the band Suckdog and the attendant forays into 90’s alt culture that she experienced and distilled into this “post-punk memoir.” We’re guessing that what’s even nicer is the $8 cover for the discussion at the Warehouse Next Door tonight. 8:30 p.m. >> Margaret Cho has vowed, I Have Chosen to Stay And Fight, but…
