Spike Lee Returns As Mookie In New Film

Dec. 30, 2011, 1:54 PM EST

By Kurt Orzeck

TheWrap

Spike Lee is returning to familiar territory for his latest movie -- er, joint.

"Red Hook Summer," which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 22, depicts a diverse set of characters sweating out the summer in Brooklyn, according to a new synopsis released by the festival.

But it's not just summer in Brooklyn that Lee is going back to. He also reprises his role as Mookie from 1989's "Do the Right Thing," which launched Lee into the ranks of major filmmakers.

One of the main characters in the movie, which doesn't yet have a theatrical release date, is a boy named Flik, according to the new synopsis. His mother sends him from their well-to-do life in Atlanta to spend the summer with his grandfather in a Brooklyn housing project called Red Hook.

Flik has never met his grandfather, who is played by Clarke Peters of "The Wire."

Flik is "bored and friendless, and his strict grandfather, Enoch, a firebrand preacher, is bent on getting him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior," according to the synopsis.

Flik becomes involved with Chazz, a girl from Enoch's church, and romance presumably ensues.

The film also stars Jules Brown, Toni Lysaith, Nate Parker, James Ransone, Keke Palmer, James Ransone and Thomas Jefferson Byrd.

"Red Hook Summer" is produced by Lee and James McBride, who collaborated together on the script.

Lee is also working on an American remake of the 2003 South Korean thriller "Oldboy."