Let’s just ignore the fact that there are a million possible Rihanna jokes that could result from this — according to The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Brown, Josh Holloway (“Lost”), Laz Alonso, Caity Lotz, and Josh Peck (“The Wackness”) will star in the feature film version of “Planet B-Boy.”
Shooting began in Los Angeles and continues in Montpellier, France.
The film is said to be “about an all-star American b-boy crew training to compete in France at the Battle of the Year (BOTY) International Championships. After a decade of defeat, the crew and their coach must go up against the best and greatest b-boys in the world: the Koreans, the Russians and the French who have dominated the original American dance form for the last 10 years.”
Well, alright.
While I personally can’t help but imagine Chris Brown smiling a lot and Josh Peck saying things like “Oh word? That’s dope!” while people do headspins in the background, I like to think the film is in good hands.
In a 2008 interview we had with director Benson Lee, he spoke a lot about the importance of persistence in gaining the trust of dancers like Ken Swift, Storm, and Trac2.
He also had the following to say about the current state of dance flicks:
“After everything that I’ve learned from making this documentary, the last thing that I wanted to do was make a movie about a b-boy who falls in love with a ballerina. And it’s really important that I take everything that I’ve learned from this culture and try to portray it within a fiction context.
“And it’s going to be challenging, and one of the things that I have to do is I have to work with real b-boys. There’s no way I can get a studio dancer to portray authentically what this culture is about. And so right now, I’m working with consultants who are actual b-boys and b-girls while also working with a writer.
“I made a promise to myself that I can’t come out there after making Planet B-Boy and make another hip-pop movie on street dance. I’m really dedicated to making a movie about b-boys and try to make it really correct.”
We’re excited to see him run it, run it.
UPDATE: The following message from Lee can be found on the Planet B-Boy Facebook page:
“Dear peeps, I understand your concerns but I want you to know that Chris Brown is just one of 13 main characters in the crew. The other 12 are real b-boys including Do-knock, Kasper, Kid David, Abstrak to name just a few. We also have an additional 20 characters who are ALL played by some of the best b-boys in America. In addition, we will be filming our movie at the real Battle of the Year at the end of this month in France. We are also including Top9 from Russia, and Pockemon from France, and a star studded Korean dreamteam made up of the best b-boys from Korea. As the director of Planet B-boy, I am proud to work with Chris Brown because he has a deep respect for b-boys, and the truth is he’s the only mainstream dancer/actor who can legitimately dance b-boy moves. We are making a fictional movie (w/o corny romance) and we have to work with actors. My principal cast is awesome period. We’ve already begun filming and they’ve killed it by playing real characters with a real story. So before you judge our film, I ask that you wait and see it first because as the director of Planet B-boy, I guarantee you that this is going to go above and beyond what you will expect of the fictional version of my doc. Anyway, thanks for being fans of the doc. I promise you that I wont let you down!”
SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter
Related posts:
- Chris Brown Working on B-Boy Show?
- Planet B-Boy to be Made into Feature Film by Screen Gems
- FloorLords to Release Feature Film
(c) More Than A Stance – Read entire story here.