Spike Lee to Direct 'Passing Strange' Film

This morning it was announced that director Spike Lee will film [Passing Strange](/21/9/music/music.cfm), Stew and Heidi Rodewald's Broadway production that blurs the line between rock show and musical.

According to the press release: "The film of PASSING STRANGE will be shot during two performances in front of a live audience on Saturday, July 19 at the Belasco Theatre (111 W. 44 St.)  (Thereafter, the musical will be filmed two additional times without an audience.)"

Stew won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical last month. Lee will produce the film along with Steve Klein, who is a co-producer of the play, are still looking for distribution and may release it in theaters or as a pay cable feature on HBO or Showtime.

It's still unclear if Oprah Winfrey will get in on the action; but since there's plenty of unapologetic references to drugs and sex, we think she'll sit out on this one and leave it to Lee to drum up an audience. We hope he's able to convince more folks to check out the filmed version (Julian Schnabel is trying to do the same thing for [Lou Reed's BERLIN] next week, when it opens at Film Forum) since Stew definitely deserves all the attention he can get.