Soderbergh will have dinner and attend a Knicks basketball game with Lee, while his money goes towards the director's crowdsourced film project
Steven Soderbergh has given $10,000 (£6,500) to Spike Lee's Kickstarter campaign.
According to the terms of Lee's Kickstarter, the donation entitles Soderbergh to dinner with the Do The Right Thing film-maker and the hire of Lee's wife Tonya's seat next to the director at a Knicks game.
"I'm taking him to dinner and we're going to the game together," Lee – a vocal fan of the New York basketball team – told MTV's NextMovie blog. "I don't even know if he likes sports! So I'm gonna pick the game for him. But I'm giving a huge shout-out to my man Steven Soderbergh for the support, and I'm really humbled with Steven coming on board and doing that."
Lee's Kickstarter was launched on 23 July and has reached just under 10% of his $1,250,000 goal. The money will be used to fund a "funny, sexy and bloody" film that is about "human beings that are addicted to blood", but – according to Lee – "is not 'Blacula'". The film-maker was turned onto crowdfunding by the success of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter (a project to make a film version of the cult cancelled TV show, which raised over $5m [£3.2m]) and Zach Braff's follow-up to Garden State, Wish You Were Here, which has been funded by over $3m [£1.95m] of donations.
In a statement on his pledge page, Lee explains that he's headed to Kickstarter because Hollywood won't fund the movies he wants to make. He writes:
"The Hollywood Studio System it's not an encouraging look for Independent Filmmakers. I'm not hating, just stating the facts. Super Heroes, Comic Books, 3D Special EFX, Blowing up the Planet Nine Times and Fly through the Air while Transforming is not my Thang. To The Studios it seems like every Film must be a Home run on a Global scale, a Tent Pole Enterprise, able to spin off Sequel after Sequel after Sequel after Sequel after Sequel after Sequel."
Soderbergh, whose last film as director – the Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra – was funded by HBO after being turned down by the Hollywood studios, cited similar reasons for his retirement.
"The worst development in film-making – particularly in the last five years – is how badly directors are treated," Soderbergh told the New York magazine in January. "It's become absolutely horrible the way the people with the money decide they can fart in the kitchen, to put it bluntly."
Rewards for donating to Lee's Kickstarter range from a personalised tweet from the director ($5 [£3.20]), to an autographed limited edition poster of the film ($75 [£48]), to the $10,000 pledge donated by Soderbergh. Three other doners have so far donated at this top tier, which Lee describes as "for all playa-playas".
• News: Spike Lee crowdfunds film on Kickstarter
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jul/24/steven-soderbergh-donates-spike-lee-kickstarter
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