Longtime filmmaker Spike Lee has tried just about every digital platform for making movies. He was one of the biggest names to fund a movie on Kickstarter (Da Sweet Blood of Jesus). His musical drama Chi-Raq was produced by Amazon and later released on demand via Amazon Instant Video. Now, he’s joining everyone’s favorite streaming service, Netflix, for a 10-episode series, according to The Hollywood Reporter, based on his 1986 debut She’s Gotta Have It, a film that celebrated its 30th anniversary this past August.
Like the film, the latest Lee joint will focus on young protagonist Nola Darling, a Brooklynite dating three men (one of whom in the film was played by Lee himself). The director will helm every episode and produce alongside his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee.
Lee joining Netflix makes him the latest entry in the streaming service’s tradition of nabbing high-profile filmmakers for TV series. The platform first turned heads when it won over David Fincher, who directed the first two episodes of House of Cards and joined on to executive produce the political series starring acting heavyweights Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey. Since then, more famous names have followed. The Wachowskis were given free reign to make the sprawling sci-fi drama Sense8, which debuted last summer, and Judd Apatow delivered the romantic dramedy Love this past February.
Hip-hop series The Get Down continued this tradition, with glitzy director Baz Luhrmann serving as an executive producer and show-runner of sorts. The show also had the shocking recent distinction of being Netflix’s most expensive show ever, with its final budget clocking in at around $120 million. However, that little detail has called into question perhaps the most popular question about Netflix: How can the company actually afford all this?
The secretive platform is stingy with business details, keeping under wraps things like its streaming numbers and its spending strategy. Netflix continue to spend exorbitant sums of money and content, recently dropping a rumored $100 million on the Queen Victoria series The Crown. Netflix is like your flashy friend whose job you just don’t understand. Every time you see them, they have something shiny and new—but when you ask how on earth they’re so damn rich, they’ll offer up only a genial wink.
One sign the network might actually be scaling back, despite the Spike Lee news, is the recent cancellation of Bloodline, the thriller starring Kevin Chandler and Linda Cardellini. The show never quite captured the zeitgeist like Orange Is the New Black or, most recently, Stranger Things, but it earned a handful of Emmy nominations and some dedicated fans. However, the show also apparently cost a staggering $7 to $8.5 million per episode, Vulture reports, a shockingly high sum for a series that likely didn't have a high enough viewership to justify the cost. “The Bloodline cancellation is the surest sign yet the company has started balancing its big spending with some strategic retreats,” the article notes—something that wasn’t happening in years before.
“We’re having conversations now where Netflix is saying, ‘Wow, we really love that show. It feels too expensive,’” a studio executive previously told Vulture.
Tapping Spike Lee is an interesting move that aligns with what seems to be Netflix’s current agenda. The streaming service is once again nabbing a director with serious highbrow clout, but also one who's not known for staggeringly high budgets. Chi-Raq was reportedly made for a modest $15 million, and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus was made on a tight $1.4 million. If there's someone who will make the most of Netflix’s boundless budgetary reserve, it’s Lee.
