It was cheesy there was a formulaic quality to it. Richard Linklater (Director): This script shows up. Producer Scott Rudin, who’d worked with White on Orange County, wanted Austin-based director Richard Linklater for their next project. I was like, “Should I get more headshots?” And my agent just laughed. The truth is, once High Fidelity came out in theaters, I didn’t even need headshots anymore. Then White got the idea to write a movie with Black as the star.īlack: Part was written for me, didn’t have to audish. White wrote a part for Black in 2002’s Orange County, in which the actor played Colin Hanks’ stoner brother. I was always fascinated by his strange magic. He would come over and we would talk, and he just made me laugh so much. Jack Black (Dewey Finn): Mike White was my neighbor. White used Fenger’s story as the inspiration for a screenplay about a down-on-his-luck rock singer who poses as a substitute teacher at a prep school - and forms a rock band with his students. The album they made, Innocence & Despair, was quickly forgotten and ignored for decades - until a 2001 repressing on CD made it a cult classic, and grabbed the attention of a young screenwriter named Mike White. In 1976, Fenger spontaneously brought the kids into the gymnasium and recorded them with his friend’s Revox tape recorder. The purpose of music is to express an emotion, but there was no music for six-year-olds to do that. I realized that Brian Wilson was writing the perfect little kid songs, and when they could sing a song like “In My Room,” it really allowed them to express their feelings. Teaching afternoon classes with very little supervision, Fenger showed his students how to play rock songs like David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” the Eagles’ “Desperado,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” - and lots of Beach Boys.įenger: Kids’ music is so “I want to teach the world to sing in harmony! Peace in the world! My pets are really nice!” Meanwhile, kids didn’t feel that. I showed up there with hair all over the place, in a district that had more churches than schools. Langley had a teacher shortage, so they were hiring anybody, including me. Maybe in Sherwood Forest in the Middle Ages. I happened to already have a degree from the Sixties, in medieval English poetry and music, which landed me a job nowhere. I had no clue what I was doing, and I certainly never wanted to be a teacher, but life got in the way. Hans Fenger (The Langley Schools Music Project): The Seventies were an odd time for me. In 1975, a 27-year-old Canadian musician got a job teaching at an elementary school in rural British Columbia. Here’s the full story of School of Rock, as told through 30 new interviews with the movie’s cast and crew, including Black, Linklater, Sarah Silverman, Miranda Cosgrove, Maryam Hassan, Rivkah Reyes, Joey Gaydos Jr., and more. Barry Can’t Swim live in London: jubilant beats from a rising star.Oscars 2024: Who should win, who will win?.Every scene is clicking and the laughs are strong in the room.’ I could feel, right out of the gate, something special is happening.” Read next I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is like a diamond. But this was the first time where it just killed. “Table reads are always boring because movies are not meant to be read at a table, they’re meant to be seen on a big screen. “When we did the read-through, that’s when I felt it,” he says. Two decades on, it remains a wildly funny movie with honest-to-God great tunes - and its kind, inclusive spirit has aged much better than most 2000s comedies.Įven before filming began, Black knew School of Rock was going to be different. Over the years, it’s inspired a hit Broadway musical, a TV show, and a children’s book, and helped popularize actual School of Rock programs for kids who want to serve society by rocking. His star turn as the lovable loser in Richard Linklater’s School of Rock helped the film gross nearly $20 million when it opened, breaking the record for music-themed comedies at the time. It was 20 years ago this month that Jack Black put on a bow tie, walked into a prep school, and told a bunch of fourth graders to get the Led out.
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