If you take a moment, you might remember back in 2006 when Spike Lee and Denzel Washington worked together for the fourth time on the crime heist flick Inside Man, which featured additional starring turns from Jodie Foster and Clive Owen.

Well, it's been rumored that a followup bearing the "elaborate" title Inside Man 2 was in the works for a couple of years now but, according to Spike "Mars Blackmon" himself, the project died awhile ago -- something the rest of the Internet has been slow to catch up on.

Truth be told, I'm glad that Inside Man 2 looks like it'll never come to fruition.  The original was a fairly clever, fun cat-and-mouse thriller that was a return to critical form for Lee (after his atrociously-received previous flick She Hate Me) and a moderate financial hit that pulled in just over $184 million worldwide.

Put simply, a sequel felt complete unnecessary and sounded like more than a bit of a lame project for someone of Lee's caliber to take on, not to mention Washington and the other members of the top-notch cast that worked on Inside Man.

Instead, it looks as though Lee has a new joint (as he calls them) in the works, a film which will be titled Brooklyn Loves MJ (that is, Michael Jackson).  Details on the script for this project are being kept under wraps for now but, well, the title itself is kind of self-explanatory with regards to the potential subject mater.

Oddly enough, this is the first fictional film I've heard of in the works that will in some way touch on the cultural phenomenon that was Michael Jackson since the musician's death last year.  Will Brooklyn Loves MJ contain some biographical elements and actually incorporate Jackson into its plot as a character?  Or will the film's narrative be set in the aftermath of his untimely demise?

Either way, we'll keep you posted on any concrete information concerning Brooklyn Loves MJ -- or when Lee might start rolling the camera on this one -- as it comes in.

Source: The Playlist, ESPN, Showbiz 411