Ever since breaking through with She's Gotta Have It (1986), Spike Lee has developed a reputation as an intelligent, sometimes controversial but always highly respected writer and director. His films, known as "Spike Lee Joints", include Do The Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), Clockers (1995) and, with Denzel Washington, Mo Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992) and He Got Game (1998). He teams up with Denzel again for his latest film, bank heist thriller Inside Man.

Inside Man takes you back to the great heist movies of the 70s, such as The Anderson Tapes and Dog Day Afternoon. Was that deliberate?

Well, we even give homages to Dog Day. Two of the actors that were in Dog Day are in Inside Man - although you'll have to do your homework to find out who they are! It was a way of trying to make something contemporary but at the same time be respectful to the films that I liked growing up.There was a lot of fun, not just because of the subject matter but just to work with a cast like that.

We haven't seen Clive Owen play a bad guy before. What was it about Clive Owen that made you use him?

Well he wasn't a good guy in Closer either. But I like working with talented people. We wanted a man to be in this role, not a boy, because Denzel's a man and in order to make the cat and mouse game work we needed somebody who could plant their feet on the ground, stand toe to toe with Denzel and not get blown off the screen, or piss their pants and be confident in who they are. Clive had great respect for Denzel but he was like "Yo, I'm here too!" And that's what we needed for that part.

Was he concerned about having to wear the mask for such long periods of time in the film?

It was a big concern and it was why he didn't sign on right away because his face was going to be covered.

How did you convince him?

I took him to a [New York] Knicks game and that's the truth. Once he said he'd do it, things were fine.

Was the Jodie Foster role written with her specifically in mind? Was she someone you'd always wanted to work with?

No it wasn't. But Jodie and my brother went to Yale together, they were in the same class and we had discussed working together. I've been doing this for 20 years and I've come to learn that things happen when they're supposed to happen.

And why did you cast Britsh actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor? You've worked with him before...

Yeah, he had a small part in She Hate Me. I saw him in Dirty Pretty Things and right away I said: "Who is that guy?" I put out my feelers and we made contact. He's a wonderful actor. I'll give you a funny anecdote: while we were shooting the film I noticed that every scene between Chiwetel and Denzel, Chiwetel is standing really close to Denzel. It's like he was almost attached to him. So when I asked, he said: "There's no way Spike is cutting my arse out of this!" If Denzel moved this way, Chiwetel would take a step with him.

What's next for you?

I'm hopefully doing a film called Save Us, Joe Louis. It's about Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Terrence Howard, the recent Academy Award nominee, is going to play Joe Louis and Hugh Jackman is going to play Max Schmeling and it's going to be an epic - bigger than Malcolm X.

Will that be your biggest undertaking as a director?

It will be. It's been co-wrote by Budd Schulberg. I made a promise to him that we'd get this film made. We've been trying to make it for six years and we're hoping to get it started late Fall. Every time this looked like it was going to happen we'd have a setback. The first was Ali because of the mentality of the studio. When Ali came out they said: "Boxing films don't work." Then it gained some momentum but when Cinderella Man came out, they said the same thing. It's that type of mentality that keeps good films from being made. I'm not trying to be biased but Star Wars was turned down by every studio because of a film called Starman, which starred Jeff Bridges. Joe Louis isn't going to be Star Wars in any way, shape or form but that's the mentality of the gatekeepers - the people that decide which films are getting made and which aren't.

Inside Man is released in UK cinemas on Friday 24th March 2006