BlacKkKlansman (2018)
- During the filming of BlacKkKlansman, John David Washington improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- Spike Lee originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
- The incredible score for BlacKkKlansman was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biographical crime drama directed by Spike Lee, based on the memoir of Ron Stallworth. John David Washington stars as Stallworth, the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department in the late 1970s, who initiates an audacious undercover investigation into the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan by conducting phone conversations with Klan members, including Grand Wizard David Duke played by Topher Grace, using his white colleague Flip Zimmerman, played by Adam Driver, as his physical stand-in at meetings. Spike Lee crafted his most commercially successful and critically acclaimed film in decades, blending true-crime thriller, dark comedy, and searing racial commentary with a virtuosity that earned him the Grand Prix at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
John David Washington's charismatic lead performance established him as a star independent of his father Denzel. Adam Driver earned an Academy Award nomination for Flip, whose Jewish heritage adds a personal dimension to the infiltration. The film's ending, which cut from the 1970s narrative to real footage of the 2017 Charlottesville rally, drew a devastating direct line between historical and contemporary racism.
BlacKkKlansman earned $93 million worldwide on a $15 million budget.
