Casting Call: She’s Gotta Have It

In which we suggest who should star in the next big adaptation, remake, or historical film.

Released in 1986, Spike Lee’s first full-length feature film tells the story of Nola Darling, gorgeous 20-something from Brooklyn, as she explores her sexuality and maintains on to her independence, despite three competing suitors’ attempts to tie her down.

Titled She’s Gotta Have It, the film deals mainly with three things: women, sex, and gentrification in Brooklyn. Throughout the years, Lee’s received sizable backlash for his treatment of both the former and the latter. On the subject of women, he’s been critiqued for not developing his female characters to the same extent that he does his male characters, though She’s Gotta Have It is a bit of an exception. The controversy surrounding Lee’s comments on gentrification is much more recent. More than once in the past year, Lee’s spoken out against the socioeconomic expulsion of black people from his native Brooklyn, and reactions to his comments have been mixed.

She’s Gotta Have It was one of the first successful films to chronicle the hip, artistic, and cultural urbanism of Brooklyn, and, along with Lee’s later film Do the Right Thing, it played a big part changing perceptions of the area. The Brooklyn of She’s Gotta Have It is certainly not the borough we see each week on Girls, or 2 Broke Girls, but some of the themes—working women living vibrant, independent, and complicated lives—might not be that far off.

Lee recently announced his plans to remodel his first film has as half-hour television series adaptation for Showtime. We’re all for the golden age of awesome things happening on TV, so we’re going to give Lee a little helpful nudge in casting, as no actors are attached yet.

Casting Call runs every Friday. For more, click here.