Baz Luhrmann is making a hip-hop drama called The Get Down, and the trailer has just been released. Known for films like The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge, but also the shamble of a movie that was Australia, it could go either way.
Whatever the case, The Get Down documents the rise of hip-hop in the late ‘70s via crew of teenagers growing up in the South Bronx. The show stars Jaden Smith, Justice Smith, Herizen Guardiola, Shameik Moore, Jimmy Smits, Giancarlo Esposito and others.
Luhrmann has at least recruited help, in the form of Nas, who acts as executive producer. Grandmaster Flash, who is portrayed by Mamoudou Athie, is also serving as an advisor and associate producer on the show.
Luhrmann told the panel discussion with series writer Nelson George at the Tribeca Film Festival: “One of the great collaborations is that I’ve been working really closely in creating these rhymes, and he’s a producer on the film, with one of the most iconic voices of the 1990s and that’s Nas. And so Nas has been this other huge creative force in the production. And it’s been playing really, really successfully.”
Part one of The Get Down will comprise of six episodes with the first appearing on Netflix, August 12. Check out the trailer below.
Image: YouTube