No Spike Lee Katrina Show .. So Far

Looks like Spike Lee's Katrina inspired show isn't going to be picked up by NBC:

On the Air

NBC spikes Lee
Peacock network pulls plug on director's post-K drama series

Thursday, January 18, 2007
Dave Walker

HOLLYWOOD -- "NoLa" is no more, at least on NBC.

The network announced Wednesday that the prospective post-Katrina TV drama, created by director Spike Lee and which was to be shot on location in New Orleans, made it no further in the development process than pilot-script stage, and now won't be made.

"There were a lot of provocative characters and some really provocative issues, and (it was) very, very well-written," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said in an interview at the Television Critics Association January press tour. "It ultimately (lacked) the framework for what could make a viable network series. I think there's a series there, just not for the network. The framework didn't seem as clear as I would've liked.

"We were going around and around with Spike, and there's a point where you say, 'Look, he doesn't need the practice. Why turn it unpleasant?' We just agreed to not do it."

NBC first announced the project in July, a few weeks before the debut of Lee's Hurricane Katrina documentary for HBO, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts."

In one later published account, Lee said the series would be made in the style of Italian neorealism films such as "The Bicycle Thief" and employ a multicultural cast, including some of the people featured in "Levees."

Lee hired screenwriter Sid Quashie to pen a pilot script for the series, the first step in the development process after the acceptance of a series-concept "pitch."

The script submitted by Lee and Quashie "was trying to be a bit of sweeping saga, hitting a number of different touchpoints in society," Reilly said. "From centering on a psychologist who's specializing in grief counseling, to police who have been overwhelmed with some of the situations they've been dealing with down there."

Another character in the pilot script, Reilly added, is "a business magnate" who is turning Katrina recovery into an opportunity by exploiting locals, a story arc "dealing with some of the graft there."

Reilly said the script had an element of dark humor in it -- one of the strong points of "Levees" -- and that Lee would've likely greatly enhanced that aspect of the script while directing the pilot.

"There was some real texture to it," Reilly said. "There's no question he would've brought a whole other layer to it directorially. I think that's kind of the way he paints in his mind. But in TV, especially when you've got to knock out 22 (episodes) on a tight timetable, it's just a little harder to work that way."

Reilly, who helped develop the gritty drama "The Shield" at the FX cable network before coming to NBC, added that Lee and NBC parted on good terms and that Lee has been released to shop the concept elsewhere.

"We let him have it back," Reilly said. "We never got to some angry, ugly place. That was the spirit of it from the get-go. We were going to try this. If it works, great. If not, let's move on."

A phone call for comment to Lee's New York City office was unreturned.

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TV columnist Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3429.