Tuning In

Lee helms for cable

Spike Lee will film the Broadway musical “Passing Strange,” Variety reports.

The director will shoot three performances — two with audiences and one without — of the critically lauded but sales-challenged musical, according to online reports that surfaced over the holiday weekend.

The show’s producers, who are said to be the backers of the video recording, reportedly would aim to air the edited result on a cable network. A representative for the production confirmed only that the filming would take place, with details to be confirmed at an announcement scheduled for Wednesday.

“Passing Strange” centers on a young black artist from Los Angeles who flees his middle-class upbringing and heads to Amsterdam and Berlin in an attempt to find himself. The show originated at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, Calif. in 2006 and played last year at off-Broadway’s Public Theater.

The well-reviewed semiautobiographical rock musical by musician Stew, with music co-written with Heidi Rodewald, earned seven Tony nominations and took home one for Stew’s book.

Since beginning performances in February, the show has had difficulty attracting crowds, although the Tony win on June 15 boosted weekly box-office sales. Yet for the week ended June 29, sales slipped to about $245,000 and audience capacity was just slightly above 50 percent, Variety says.

FX buys ‘Hancock’

Cable’s FX, continuing its aggressive buying of fresh theatrical movies, has picked up Will Smith’s “Hancock,” which opened in theaters Wednesday, Variety reports.

The film has earned $107.3 million including $66 million over the July Fourth holiday weekend since its July 2 opening, Associated Press reported Monday.

Two other Smith vehicles, “Independence Day” and “I, Robot,” consistently chalk up big Nielsen ratings every time FX schedules them, making the bid for “Hancock” a no-brainer for the network.

FX has become Sony’s most active movie buyer in the past year. It recently secured the rights to Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” for about $11 million, Variety says.

Jason gets ‘Bored’

Jason Schwartzman has been tapped as the lead in HBO’s comedy pilot “Bored to Death,” the Hollywood Reporter says.

The show centers on Jonathan (Mr. Schwartzman), a struggling thirtysomething writer with a drinking problem in Brooklyn who, following a painful breakup with his girlfriend, decides to emulate his heroes from the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. He even takes out an ad pretending to be a private detective and starts taking cases, solving some and making others worse. Production on “Bored” is slated for September in New York, THR says.

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