Spike Lee to create drama about New Orleans post-Katrina

Director Spike Lee says he's following up his documentary on Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans with a scripted drama series about the lives of the city's residents in the wake of the tragedy.

"It's a show about the city trying to rebuild itself and the people who are trying to put their lives together," Lee told the Hollywood Reporter in a report published Monday.

Lee recently released the documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, which won the best documentary award at the Venice Film Festival over the weekend.It is also being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The documentary, which knits together footage from the devastation and reaction of the city's residents to the lack of aid in the days after, is viewed as Lee's denunciation of what happened— a betrayal of the poor and working classes.

The 49-year-old filmmaker, known for making socially conscious movies such as Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, said the drama will centre on the lives of residents from different social backgrounds.

As well, several people from the documentary will be written into the show, either as supporting characters or appearing as fictionalized versions of themselves.

He is calling the series NoLa — the local slang for New Orleans.

Lee said he came up with the idea of a series while filming the documentary and emphasizes the drama will have elements of humour.

The series, which is being developed through NBC Universal, will be shot on location in the Louisiana city.

"We don't have to build sets. Things there still look like the city's been bombed out," noted the director.