Director Lee Will Cut King Video From Film

Forty-five seconds of videotape showing the beating of Rodney G. King will be deleted from the opening sequence of film director Spike Lee’s $35-million “Malcolm X,” Lee’s attorney said Monday, after he learned that Lee’s petition for a speedy hearing on the use of the footage had been denied.

In seeking to use the video segment for his movie, Lee is confronting George Holliday, who captured the March, 1991, beating of King on a tape that became world-famous. Holliday sought an injunction Sept. 10 with the U.S. District Court, accusing Lee of copyright infringement. He claimed that Lee knowingly negotiated a licensing agreement to use the footage with a party who had no authority to grant it. A ruling was not expected before Oct. 13.

But, facing an early October deadline to deliver a finished cut of the film to theater exhibitors, Lee and the movie’s distributor, Warner Bros., last week sought to speed up a hearing on the injunction by appealing to a higher court. The movie is scheduled for national release Nov. 20.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Lee’s petition Monday in a 2-1 decision.

“The ruling leaves us little room to negotiate,” said Martin Garbus, Lee’s New York-based attorney. “We plan to send the judge a letter and wait 24 hours to see if the judge will change his mind before we make the final decision (to cut the footage).” But Garbus added: “As it stands now, the footage is out.”

Garbus said Holliday has been paid $25,000 of the $50,000 that Lee offered for use of the footage. “Holliday is not offering to return that money,” Garbus said. In previous interviews, Lee has accused Holliday of extortion, saying he wants more than the $50,000. An attorney for Holliday could not be reached for comment.

The footage of the King beating appears in the opening montage of “Malcolm X” and follows a sequence showing an American flag burning and exploding into an “X.”