--- description: Showtime is developing a half-hour series based on the 1985 movie title: Spike Lee She's Gotta Have It Showtime Television Show image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c1f09b7105f6eeb/69868e15810bbb163ec9169c/shes-gotta-have-it.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Spike Lee and _She's Gotta Have It_ Make TV Moves  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 6, 2014 4:30 PM CUT  One sheet movie poster advertises 'She's Gotta Have it' (Island Pictures), directed by Spike Lee and starring Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Joie Lee, and S. Epatha Merkerson, 1986\. (Photo by John D. Kisch/Separate Cinema Archive/Getty Images) One sheet movie poster advertises 'She's Gotta Have it' (Island Pictures), directed by Spike Lee and starring Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Joie Lee, and S. Epatha Merkerson, 1986\. (Photo by John D. Kisch/Separate Cinema Archive/Getty Images)John D. Kisch / Separate Cinema / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 6, 2014 4:30 PM CUT Last night, _Deadline_ [broke the news](http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/shes-gotta-have-it-showtime-series-spike-lee/ "undefined") that Spike Lee and Showtime are working to develop the filmmaker’s debut _She’s Gotta Have It_ into a half-hour series that would be written and directed by Lee. The project, as described by _Deadline_, would be a “contemporary look” at the characters introduced in the film — a young woman in Brooklyn and the three men with whom she’s involved — that would explore issues of “race, gender, sexuality, relationships, and the gentrification in Brooklyn.” Should the series make it to TV, it will join a wave of movie-to-television projects that have surfaced in recent seasons. Though the concept of basing a TV show on a preexisting movie is nothing new — take _M\*A\*S\*H,_ for example — this spring’s [_Fargo_](http://time.com/55550/fargo-fx-review/ "undefined") series on FX is an obvious point of comparison. It has respected auteurs who are involved in the TV version (the Coens are executive producers on _Fargo_), a respected movie inspiration and a substantial gap of years between projects (unlike, for example, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D_). That bodes well for _She’s Gotta Have It_: the _Fargo_ project has been well-received by critics, and its relationship to its source material could provide a working model for Lee and Showtime. Without remaking or rehashing a movie that many fans hold sacrosanct, it uses references, concepts and settings that have already proved their worth on the big screen. Off the screen, _She’s Gotta Have It_ has something even _Fargo_ doesn’t. Though the Coens haven’t made a habit of getting involved in Midwestern politics in the years since they set a movie in the region, Lee is inextricably linked to his Brooklyn setting, and we already know that he’s got lots of ideas about the gentrification of the New York City borough that he plans to explore on the series. Earlier this year, he made waves with two separate anti-gentrification “rants,” once at a [Pratt Institute lecture ](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/spike-lee-amazing-rant-against-gentrification.html "undefined")about how an influx of white New Yorkers have been “bogarting” his old neighborhoods and later in [an open letter](http://www.whosay.com/articles/1557-spike-lees-open-letter-to-the-new-york-times "undefined") responding to criticism of his initial statements. But Lee and Showtime better move fast if they want to stay “contemporary”: [we’re already hearing](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/04/gentrification-coming-for-queens.html "undefined") that Queens is the gentrification spot of the moment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/89268/spike-lee-shes-gotta-have-it-showtime/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/89268/spike-lee-shes-gotta-have-it-showtime/"},"headline":"Spike Lee and She's Gotta Have It Make TV Moves","datePublished":"2014-05-06T16:30:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:40:39.128Z","description":"Showtime is developing a half-hour series based on the 1985 film","url":"https://time.com/89268/spike-lee-shes-gotta-have-it-showtime/","keywords":["Television","movies","Showtime","TV","Spike Lee"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c1f09b7105f6eeb/69868e15810bbb163ec9169c/shes-gotta-have-it.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c1f09b7105f6eeb/69868e15810bbb163ec9169c/shes-gotta-have-it.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"She's Gotta Have It","caption":"She's Gotta Have It","creditText":"John D. 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