Spike Lee’s Wife, Tonya Lewis Lee will Bring the Book “The Watkins Go to Birmingham” to the Big Screen

Looks like Spike Lee’s wife has caught the movie bug.  After being married to Spike for 19 years, it looks like Tonya Lewis Lee now wants to get behind the camera.  Tonya is not your ordinary spouse.  She is a former corporate attorney who now runs her own television production company and she is an accomplished children’s author winning several literary awards for her books:  Please Baby Please, Please Puppy Please and Giant Steps to save the World.

Tonya is now ready to make her move to the big screen.  She will be producing a film adaptation of the novel entitled “The Watkins Go to Birmingham”.  The director of the film will be Kenny Leon.  Leon has made a name for himself on  Broadway directing Phylicia Rashad in “A Raisin in the Sun” and Denzel Washington in “Fences”.

The story is based on a book written by Christopher Paul Curtis.  It’s about a family living in Flint, Michigan who travel to their grandmother’s house in Birmingham, Alabama.  Castings for the roles are underway and filming is expected to start next month.

The book includes the infamous 1963 church Bombing in Birmingham,  it will be interesting to see how Tonya handles this.  I think it’s safe to say that it won’t be a Tyler Perry movie.

When asked if she shared her husbands opinion on Perry, Tonya replied,

I don’t want to knock Tyler Perry because evidently there are a whole lot of people that really like Tyler Perry’s work.  That is completely their option.  He can do the work that he wants to do how he wants to do it. There is definitely an audience that his work is serving.  There is silly entertainment, like The Three Stooges — and I’m not equating Tyler Perry to The Three Stooges — but the problem is that there are just not enough other kinds of material out there to provide a balance.

I’m not comparing him to The Three Stooges…….BUT I AM!!!!