James Brown: The Round-Up

• It took Spike Lee roughly 30 hours to turn the death of James Brown into a paying gig: last night Brian Grazer announced he's handing the director his long-in-gestation Brown biopic. Spike won't be able to get to it until he's finished memorializing the L.A. riots and sequelizing Inside Man.
• Chris Campbell takes a brief looksee at Brown's filmography at Cinematical. Above:
• the incredible "Living in America" sequence from Rocky IV, in which every character but Brown and Apollo Creed seem to be thinking, "Jesus fucking Christ."
• Brown's lawyer is blocking the mother of the singer's 5 year old son from his estate. Apparently, Brown's ladyfriend was married to another man at the time she and Brown exchanged vows, thus rendering the union invalid and her automatic legal access to his assets void.