NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Spike Lee to direct ‘NBA’ video game

LOS ANGELES

“NBA 2K16” will be a Spike Lee joint.

2K Games announced Thursday that it recruited the acclaimed filmmaker – and die-hard New York Knicks fan – to write and direct the single-player campaign for the interactive basketball franchise’s next edition.

What did it take for the creator of such landmark films as “Do the Right Thing” and “He Got Game” to sign on to produce a video game?

“They asked me,” Lee matter-of-factly noted during a recent phone interview from Chicago, where he’s in production on his next project, “Chiraq.”

Lee said the game’s story centers on a basketball player named Frequency Vibrations, whose personal exploits off the court are just as chaotic as the game on it.

“It’s about the trials and tribulations of life on a big stage with the money, fame, temptations, family members, the press, fans, all that stuff,” said Lee.

Though the game is a basketball simulation at its heart, “NBA 2K” developer Visual Concepts has integrated cinematic elements into the single-player mode over the past five years. For the latest round, the game makers passed that task to Lee in hopes of achieving a slam dunk with gamers.

Fox gets 3.1M viewers for Duggar interview

NEW YORK

Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly reached 3.1 million viewers for the first part of her interview with TLC’s Duggar family about their son’s sexual misconduct, her largest audience of the year.

The Nielsen company said Kelly’s show Wednesday doubled its typical audience among younger viewers. Her nightly show averages 2.2 million viewers.

The parents who star in TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” acknowledged their son Josh fondled five girls, including four of his sisters, about a dozen years ago. Their reality show has been put on hold by TLC since reports of Josh’s behavior surfaced two weeks ago, and the network would not comment Thursday on the Duggar interview.

Kelly will air the second part of her interview, with two of the sisters who were Josh’s victims, today.

Vindicator wire services