Chadwick Boseman to Star in Spike Lee’s New Movie, Vietnam Veteran Drama Da 5 Bloods

Fresh off his long-overdue first Oscar nomination as a director, Spike Lee has started piecing together the follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 drama BlacKkKlansman. Netflix is in negotiations to distribute Da 5 Bloods, Lee’s first feature for the streaming giant, with Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) attached to star, as Variety first reported.

Da 5 Bloods’ ensemble cast—which Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X) and Jean Reno (Léon: The Professional) are also in talks to join—portrays a group of Vietnam veterans who return to the jungle in an effort to find their lost innocence and pick up the pieces of their shattered, war-torn psyches.

Lee directs the film and scripts it alongside his Chi-Raq and BlacKkKlansman collaborator Kevin Willmott, based on Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo’s original screenplay, which was rewritten by Matthew Billingsly. Lee also produces with Beatriz and Lloyd Levin, and Jon Kilik.

“To quote my brother Jay-Z from Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn, ‘On to Da Next One,’” Lee said to Variety.

Variety sources say production on Da 5 Bloods is expected to get up and running as soon as March, after Lee’s BlacKkKlansman Oscar campaigning is over. Though the film will be Lee’s first directorial effort for Netflix, he does executive produce the streamer’s series adaptation of his 1986 film She’s Gotta Have It.

Find out where Lee’s latest landed on Paste’s list of 2018’s best films here.