Lee Readies Inside Man Sequel

As we gear up to see Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee's 166-minute (166!!) WWII-mystery being released at the end of the month, news comes that Mr. Lee has signed up to direct a sequel to his biggest hit, the excellent faux-70s bank heist Inside Man.

Of course, there's no immediately apparent reason to continue the story of a cop (Denzel Washington) and a bank robber (Clive Owen) when the bank robbery is over. Will the sequel be mawkish and forced like the last twenty-minutes of Catch Me If You Can, when Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio go from enemies to co-workers? Ick! A sequel just sounds like a total money grab and quite possibly a bad idea.

And maybe it is. But that doesn't mean it won't be awesome! If you throw Clive Owen and Denzel Washington into the same movie, it's going to be incredibly watchable. Toss in the fact that it's Spike Lee, who will no doubt bring his usual visual flair to even the most predictable of studio film situations, and you've got a movie we're going to line up to see on opening weekend. And we bet we won't be alone. Terry George, he of Hotel Rwanda fame, has been selected to pen the film, leaving us to wonder if the bad guys of the sequel will be members of the Hutu militia instead of dusty old Nazi's. That could work.