HBO's saying 'Hey Ya' to OutKast
Cabler teams with duo on pop tuner
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HBO is near a deal to start production on its first musical, an original period tuner starring OutKast's Andre 3000 and Big Boi.
The musical was written and will mark the feature directing debut of Bryan Barber, who helmed the band's memorable videos for "Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move."
Broadway vet Hinton Battle will choreograph the pic, which has a budget in the $15 million range.
The pic is a full-blown singing and dancing musical that will inject contemporary music into a period tale. Some of the songs will come from OutKast's Grammy winning album "Speakerboxx/The Love Below," but most will be original tunes written by OutKast that will go onto a future album.
While HBO generally makes its pictures directly for the network, the OutKast project will be a theatrical release first.
HBO also premiered "American Splendor" theatrically, and will do the same with the upcoming "Maria Full of Grace," the Spanish language film that Fine Line will distrib this summer. Barber has scripted a drama that takes place in a Speakeasy in the South during the '30s Prohibition era. Andre 3000 is the house piano player, while Big Boi will play the lead performer and manager, who's trying to stave off gangsters who want to get their hooks into the place.
Pic's being exec produced by Mosaic Media Group's Charles Roven and Robert Guralnick, and produced by Forensic's Robin O'Hara and Scott Macauley. The latter produced the John Leguizamo-directed "Undefeated" for HBO. Michael "Blue" Williams and Erika Conner are co-producing.
The project originated through a deal that Mosaic made with HBO last year that was supposed to yield a half-dozen low-cost urban-themed films.
Little has happened with that slate because Barber and the OutKast duo sparked to the period piece. Mosaic, which produced "Scooby-Doo," and HBO got more ambitious with the budget and turned it into a bigger film.
The pending deal comes after the duo's last album won three Grammys and sold 8 million copies. Andre 3000, whose real name is Andre Benjamin, has become a busy actor, appearing in FX series "The Shield" and playing a supporting role in "Get Shorty" sequel "Be Cool." The musical will be the acting debut of Big Boi, nee Antwan Andre Patton.
WMA, which reps Barber and the band, is putting together the pieces.
