Just over 20 years after they teamed up on the critically acclaimed drama 25th Hour, director Spike Lee and star Edward Norton are reunited.
The 66-year-old filmmaker shared a photo of him and 53-year-old Norton visiting the director’s film class at New York University on Thursday.
Lee – who reportedly made amends with Rosie Perez over her Do The Right Thing nude scene – and Norton were flanked by the director’s students, as Lee shared a post with his 2.1 million followers.
“Today was great, great day in my NYU GRAD FILM CLASS,” Lee began in the caption of his post.
‘Mr. EDWARD NORTON answered class questions after we screened 25th HOUR. And That’s Da NY 9/11 Truth, Ruth. YA-DIG❓SHO-NUFF,” Lee concluded.
Reunited: Just over 20 years after they teamed up on the critically acclaimed drama 25th Hour, director Spike Lee and star Edward Norton are reunited
Screened: ‘Mr. EDWARD NORTON answered class questions after we screened 25th HOUR. And That’s Da NY 9/11 Truth, Ruth. YA-DIG❓SHO-NUFF,” Lee concluded
25th Hour celebrated its 20th anniversary in December, which Lee directed from an adapted screenplay by David Benioff, marking his debut as a screenwriter nearly a decade before co-creating Game of Thrones with DB Weiss.
Benioff adapted the story from his own debut novel of the same name, published in 2001, which was discovered by Tobey Maguire and resulted in the actor’s first producing credit.
The film follows Monty Brogan (Norton), a New York City drug dealer who is about to serve a seven-year sentence.
He plans one last night out with his old friends Frank (Barry Pepper) and Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), which he spends re-evaluating his life and the choices that lead him there.
Lee was nominated for a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his work, with 25th Hour receiving rave reviews even though it only made $23.9 million worldwide on a $5 million budget.
The film was still in development when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred in New York City, and Lee decided to incorporate it into the story.
Mick LaSalle, film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, called 25th Hour “the only great movie about the September 11 tragedy.”
While Lee is certainly best known as a filmmaker, he has also been a tenured professor at NYU for many years.
Anniversary: 25th Hour celebrated its 20th anniversary in December, which Lee directed from an adapted screenplay by David Benioff, marking his debut as a screenwriter nearly a decade before co-creating Game of Thrones with DB Weiss
Prison: The film follows Monty Brogan (Norton), a New York City drug dealer who is about to serve a seven-year sentence
Friends: He plans one last night out with his old friends Frank (Barry Pepper) and Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), which he spends re-evaluating his life and the choices that lead him there
Lee received his Master of Fine Arts in film and television from NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, after graduating with a degree in mass communications from Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Lee was already making a name for himself as a filmmaker when he enrolled at NYU for his independent short film Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.
The 1983 short was the first student film to be shown at the Lincoln Center’s New Directors New Films Festival, and eventually won a Student Academy Award, with future filmmakers Ang Lee and Ernest Dickerson working on the short as assistant directors, respectively. director and cinematographer. .
While Norton is from Boston and received his undergraduate degree from Yale, his acting career also started in New York City.
After moving to the Big Apple, he acted in off-Broadway plays before being discovered by casting agent Shirley Rich, who helped him cast his feature film debut – 1996’s Primal Fear, which earned him his first Oscar nomination.
Lee has three films he is currently directing in pre-production: Prince of Cats, an 1980s hip-hop retelling of Romeo & Juliet, Da Understudy starring Jonathan Majors, and Boner, a Viagra origin musical.
Norton comes from his role as Miles Bron in writer-director Rian Johnson’s thriller Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story.
He also recently starred in an episode of Apple TV Plus’ Extrapolations and will next appear in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City.
Spike’s mark: Lee was already starting to make his mark as a filmmaker when he enrolled at NYU for his independent short film Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
Recent role: Norton reprises his role as Miles Bron in writer-director Rian Johnson’s thriller Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story