Spotlight on Spike Lee

Paunchier, grayer, and balder, Lee, 49, does seem to have softened. Inside Man, a director-for-hire assignment already in development, was noticeably more plot-driven than issue-driven, and he turned it into a hit. Considering that Lee's often controversial material — not to mention erratic box office performance — has made it difficult to secure studio funding for his pet projects, the heist flick's impressive haul should boost his Hollywood cachet. ''It had to happen sooner or later,'' says the director, who also recently shot Shark, a pilot for CBS.

For Lee, whose low-budget indie She's Gotta Have It (1986) helped usher in a new era of black filmmakers like John Singleton and the Hughes brothers, individual gains and losses are of little importance in light of a larger, ongoing problem in the movie industry. ''There's not one African-American in one of the gatekeeper positions,'' he says. ''By gatekeepers I mean persons who can greenlight a picture. I'm not talking about stars. Will [Smith] can get the phonebook made if he wants to. I'm talking about executives at a network or a studio. We are not even in the room.''

On this topic, Lee goes from zero to belligerent in seconds. He insists — rather loudly — that, were the studios as concerned with money as most people believe, their executive hirings would reflect the increasing minority population. ''They're missing out,'' he says. ''Whatever studio told — what's the guy that puts on a dress?'' Tyler Perry. ''The motherf---ing studios that told Tyler Perry when he was trying to get a film made that black people who go to church don't go to movies.'' So, what would make anyone turn a blind eye to profit?

''Pure racism,'' he says. ''I'm not going to sugarcoat it.'' Now, that's the Spike Lee we know.

Spike Lee: My Brilliant Career

Highlights from 20 years of rabble-rousing

1986 She's Gotta Have It

1988 School Daze
A musical about the black college experience.

1989 Do The Right Thing
''People (wrote) that it was going to cause black people to riot all over the country.'' It didn't.

1990 Mo' Better Blues
Lee's first teaming with Denzel Washington.

1991 Jungle Fever

1992 Malcolm X

1996 Girl 6
Phone-sex operators and Prince tunes

1999 Summer of Sam

2000 Bamboozled
Lee satirizes TV with a modern-day minstrel show.

2002 25th Hour

2004 She Hate Me
Critics hated it.

2006 Inside Man
''The stars aligned,'' Lee says.

2006 When the Levees Broke