Netflix has ordered Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (The 1st Spike Lee Joint Feature Film) to series. The 10-episode series is a contemporary update of Spike Lee’s revolutionary debut independent film. She’s Gotta Have It centers on Nola Darling, a Brooklyn-based artist in her late twenties struggling to define herself and divide her time amongst her Friends, her Job and her Three Lovers. Her three lovers are The Cultured Model, Greer Childs, The Protective Investment Banker, Jamie Overstreet and Da Original B-Boy Sneakerhead, Mars Blackmon.
Spike Lee is directing the entire series and serves as creator and executive producer along with his producer wife Tonya Lewis Lee, who will also executive produce. She’s Gotta Have It is produced by Netflix. Here’s what Spike Lee had to say in his statement, which features its own unique punctuation.
“She’s Gotta Have It Has A Very Special Place In My Heart. We Shot This Film In 12 Days (2 Six Day Weeks) Way Back In The Back Back Of The Hot Summer Of 1985 For A Mere Total of $175,000. Funds That We Begged, Borrowed and Whatnot To Get That Money. This Is The 1st Official Spike Lee Feature Film Joint And Everything That We Have Been Blessed With In This Tough Business Of Film All Have Been Due To SGHI. Now With The Passing (August 8th) Of The 30th Anniversary, It’s A Gift That Keeps On Giving. We Are Getting An Opportunity To Revisit These Memorable Characters Who Will Still Be Relevant And Avant Garde 3 Decades Later. With All That Said It Was My Wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, Producer In Her Own Right, Who Had The Vision To Take My Film From The Big Screen And Turn It Into An Episodic Series. It Had Not Occurred To Me At All. Tonya Saw It Plain As Day. I Didn’t. We Are Hyped That Netflix Is Onboard With This Vision As Nola Darling, Mars Blackmon, Jamie Overstreet And Greer Childs DO DA DAMN THANG Now, Today In Da Republic Of Brooklyn, New York.”
The original movie starred Tracy Camilla Johns as Nora Darling, Tommy Redmond Hicks as Jamie Overstreet, John Canada Terrell as Greer Childs and Spike Lee himself as Mars Blackmon. The supporting cast included S. Epatha Merkerson, Bill Lee and Cheryl Burr. The cast also included Reginald Hudlin, who would go on to produce movies like The Hateful Eight with Quentin Tarantino, and Ernest R. Dickerson, who also served as Spike Lee’s cinematographer on this film and many other Spike Lee productions before making his directorial debut with Juice.
Spike Lee would later bring his Mars Blackmon character into the advertising world, with a series of Nike Air Jordan commercials with NBA legend Michael Jordan. She’s Gotta Have It earned $7.1 million during its theatrical run in 1986. No casting has been announced for Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It TV series at this time.