Will Spike’s ‘Summer’ Vision Remain Intact?

Three months before its planned release, a graphic, startling cut of director Spike Lee’s new film for Walt Disney Co.’s Touchstone Pictures, “Summer of Sam,” has been deemed too racy to be released under an R rating, causing Lee to go back to the editing room to tone it down.

Lee’s original cut of the film, which chronicles how the 1977 killing spree of David Berkowitz (a.k.a. Son of Sam) affected one Italian American section of the Bronx, was shown to the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s rating board--as well as several journalists--last week. The MPAA has yet to make a final ruling, but sources say the violence, profanity, sex and drug use in Lee’s version placed the film firmly in NC-17 territory.

Among the scenes that have raised red flags for the ratings board: John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino amid an orgy at New York City’s infamous (and now defunct) swingers club, Plato’s Retreat.

“The ratings board said this is a picture that would not be released with an R-rating,” confirmed Joe Roth, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who defended the film even as he said that some of it is tough to watch. “Part of what you hope in these jobs is that you have relationships with artists who, in skirting the rules or running close to the rules, sometimes create great work. Let’s judge it when it’s finished.”

During the past week, Lee has been trimming the film, Roth said, “and he’s still got work to do. . . . He’s got stuff in there that is rougher than I would make. I’m hoping at some point he will trim it out.” Attempts to reach Lee for this story were unsuccessful.

To be sure, any movie that sets out, as this one did, to show Berkowitz’s reign of terror (he killed six people and wounded seven others) was never going to be tame. And Lee has always been known for provocative and controversial films. “Do the Right Thing” (1989) unflinchingly tackled issues of racial stereotyping and prejudice. “Jungle Fever” (1991) explored the largely ignored terrain of interracial romance. “Malcolm X” (1992) was a portrait of the slain Muslim leader. And “Girl 6” (1996) delved into the world of telephone sex services.

But Lee’s “Summer of Sam” is so raw that sources say even some Disney executives--though publicly supportive of the project--are privately distancing themselves from it.

Lee has final cut on the film, but is required to complete an R-rated version in order for Disney to release it. Discussions are continuing with the MPAA rating board about what changes are needed.

Even before the MPAA weighed in, the studio had pushed back the film’s release from June 25 to July 30, leading to half-serious speculation among Disney’s competitors about what would happen if a movie with “Summer” in the title ended up being released in the fall. Whenever “Summer of Sam” hits theaters, it is unclear how the studio will market it. On Disney’s movie promotion Web site, https://www.movies.com, the film is noticeably absent (despite the presence of films opening months later).

“Summer of Sam,” which cost $22 million to make, was in the post-production stage last month, when Roth and Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner announced plans to shift the movie studio’s emphasis to family fare, substantially increasing the number of Disney-branded family movies it produces while simultaneously cutting its overall investment in films by more than a third.

Given that it was already in the pipeline, Disney executives say, “Summer of Sam”--which is being released under Disney’s Touchstone banner--was never expected to be part of the new family-friendly push. Moreover, the refocusing of the film division was never intended to eliminate adult-themed films from the studio’s slate, so conceivably Lee could have made this film even now.

‘Wow, This is Really Rough,’ Joe Roth Says

Last year, the studio’s investment in non-Disney-brand adult-content fare was roughly four times that spent on family movies, Roth said. The new goal is to spend about equally on Disney-branded and live-action mature viewing fare, such as the recent Touchstone movies “Armageddon” and “The Horse Whisperer.”

“Our job, besides putting out family-branded pictures, is to sponsor artists,” said Roth, who described “Summer of Sam” as “the work of a somewhat controversial artist, not an example of what the Walt Disney Co. thinks is a family film. When we think a film is a family film we call it a Walt Disney Film.”

Still, it is difficult to find anyone at the Burbank-based studio who can imagine how Eisner, the top dog at a company whose name is synonymous with family entertainment, will react to “Summer of Sam,” in which a variety of non-missionary sexual positions are not only talked about in detail, but performed. The film also contains a revealing shot of Patti LuPone, topless; an unusual sequence in which Berkowitz (played by Michael Badalucco, who plays Jimmy on TV’s “The Practice”) has a conversation with a talking dog (in real life, Berkowitz said he took his killing orders from a black dog named Harvey); and a sequence in which actor Adrien Brody, dancing suggestively with a male mannequin at a gay strip club, knifes the dummy repeatedly as an approving audience looks on.

Roth confirmed that Eisner has not yet seen the film (“He’ll see the next cut,” Roth said). But the media giant’s top executive has read the script, at Roth’s request.

“I read the script and I said, ‘Wow, this is really rough.’ So I gave it to Michael to read,” Roth said. “We talked about the Plato’s Retreat scene and said, ‘The ratings board will tell us what we can and can’t do.’ Did [Lee] make a movie that’s rougher so far than the script? Yes. Is it [the editing process] over? No.”

Son of Sam, Yankees and Punk-Rock Scene

Back-and-forth negotiations with the MPAA over ratings are commonplace in Hollywood on films with particularly graphic or difficult material. For example, Paul Anderson, the director of the sexually provocative “Boogie Nights,” about the porn-video industry, had lengthy and in-depth discussions with MPAA officials throughout the making of his film.

MPAA guidelines state that R-rated movies may contain hard language, tough violence, nudity within sensual scenes or drug abuse, but if that content is considered “too strong” or “aberrational,” an NC-17 rating can be applied. The decision rests with the individual members of the ratings board.

This is not the first Spike Lee Joint production that Disney’s Touchstone Pictures has made. Last year, the studio released “He Got Game,” starring Denzel Washington and Milla Jovovich. That film, too, showed parts of the gritty underside of New York City. But it also had at its center a father-son relationship and was interwoven with a near-patriotic celebration of basketball and American sportsmanship--themes that more easily lend themselves to film marketing campaigns.

“Summer of Sam,” by contrast, paints a dark portrait of a fearful city. Bookended with a prologue and epilogue of real-life newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin (who received a letter from Berkowitz during the killing spree) talking to the camera, the film explores how fear of difference can cause a community to pick a scapegoat. In this, Lee’s first film that doesn’t feature a prominent African American cast, the director takes a snapshot of 1977, from the punk-rock scene to the Yankees winning the World Series.

When asked by Premiere magazine how much graphic violence the film contains, Lee was quoted as saying, “I think ‘Saving Private Ryan’ still has us beat.”

Stories of Lee’s insistence on independence in his filmmaking abound in Hollywood. In the past, on projects in development with other studios, Lee has been known on occasion to respond to criticism by abruptly exiting meetings with studio executives.

Sources say that on “Summer of Sam,” Lee has been neither defiant nor compliant. Disney executives saw dailies during the making of the film and offered suggestions. Lee has listened politely to comments from Roth and other Disney executives, but at times has given little indication about whether he will heed them.

Asked to describe the working relationship between Lee and Disney creative executives, Roth said: “Spike Lee would like to make the movies he makes as controversial as he deems appropriate. He also listens--he has to listen--to the ratings board. And he has some level of respect for what we say.”