Spike Lee's 'She's Gotta Have It' to Become a TV Series

Spike Lee established his indie bonafides right off the break with his debut feature, She's Gotta Have It. Shot in under two weeks for about $175K back in 1985, the film established Lee's signature Brooklyn voice and put him on the Hollywood map. And now Lee is revisiting his breakout hit by developing the film as a half-hour Showtime TV series.

Deadline reports Lee will write and direct the series which will provide an updated, contemporary look at the film's characters. She's Gotta Have It starred Tracy Camilla Johns as Nola Darling, an aggressive, smart, sexually active young Brooklyn woman as she juggled relationships with three very different men, one played by Lee in his famous Mars Blackmon persona. The Darling character was seen recently in Lee's awful polarizing Red Hook Summer, having become a Jehovah's Witness in the years since.

By the sound of it this won't be a continuation, but a new series with similar themes on race, sexuality, relationships, and so forth. Still, this is the last thing I expected to hear Lee was working on but it does sound intriguing. Hopefully it turns out better than Showtime's terrible Soul Food and Barbershop shows because I'd hate to see a favorite piece of African-American cinema devalued.