Spike Lee is clearly in a good mood when he pops onscreen for our video chat.

The director, who's sporting his signature baseball cap and thick-framed glasses, is flanked in the frame by all the things he loves. The walls behind him are covered with art, murals of his idols, and movie posters, including a signed one of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa. When Lee realizes he's talking to a baseball fan, he jumps up from his chair and grabs a wooden bat, which he brings closer to the camera to reveal is signed by Hall of Fame legend Willie Mays.

But there's another reason Lee is grinning from ear to ear.

"The dynamic duo is back!" he exclaims.

It's been almost 20 years since Lee and Denzel Washington's last movie together. (That was 2006's "Inside Man," though the pair is also responsible f

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