How Six Celebrities Rescued Malcolm X From Its Bond Company

By 1991 Spike Lee's Malcolm X was roughly five million dollars over its budget, and Warner Bros., which had capped the running time it wanted at under three hours, stopped financing the production and handed it to the completion bond company that guaranteed the film would be finished on schedule. Lee had already been paid two million dollars for directing and had put half his own salary back into the film. Facing a studio unwilling to fund the length he believed the subject required, he turned to a list of prominent Black Americans and asked for outright gifts, no strings attached, to close the gap himself.

Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Tracy Chapman, Janet Jackson and Prince all wrote checks. Two calls closed it. Lee told Magic Johnson what he needed, and Johnson gave it; when Lee later mentioned Johnson's gift to Michael Jordan, Jordan matched it on the spot. Lee held a press conference in Harlem publicizing the donors and the amounts, an unusual and pointed way to put a studio's decision in public view. Warner Bros. reclaimed the film from the bond company the next day and resumed financing it. The finished film ran 202 minutes, the length Lee had wanted, and Denzel Washington received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.