Dave Chappelle's Block Party

[Ghostboy]

From one of those interchangeable trades...

Dave Chappelle is teaming up with director Michel Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) to produce and star in an untitled music/comedy feature to be directed by Gondry. Chapelle will emcee the project and do standup and scripted comedy. Pic will have a documentary aspect to it with some of the musical and comedy elements to be filmed live from the musical and comedy event that will take place in New York. Pic will start shooting later this month on location in Brooklyn.

[MacGuffin]

More info:

Chapelle and Gondry Unite
Pair teams up for an untitled project featuring both music and comedy. Source: FilmStew.com

Actor and comedian Dave Chappelle is teaming up with Michel Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, on an untitled comedy project, which will star Chappelle and be directed by Gondry. Although the project has no distributor attached, Chappelle and Gondry, who will both also produce with Bob Yari, will begin shooting the $5 million budgeted project later this month in Brooklyn.

Details of the plot are being kept close the vest, but the project is based on an original idea by Chappelle inspired by Wattstax, a seven hour, non-stop musical event that took place at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1972, hosted by Richard Pryor and featuring some of the hottest names in soul, R&B and gospel music at the time. The project will not be a concert film but will have a documentary feel and feature Chappelle as the host doing scripted stand-up at the musical event.

UTA, which reps both Chappelle and Gondry, will be handling the distribution rights on the project. Chappelle is financing along with Yari's Bob Yari Productions.

Chappelle, who's attached to star in Universal's King of the Park, recently signed an eight-figure deal that will keep his Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central through 2006. He's also been seen in the features Con Air, Blue Streak and Undercover Brother, among others.

[Stefen]

Dave Chappelle and Michel Gondry? It sounds pretty cool, but that is just an odd odd pairing. It's like if Cindy Margolis and Ron Jeremy got together to do a porno with penetration, but it never showed the penetration. Just panting and gasping.

[modage]

sounds......okay.  not exactly the exciting follow-up i was hoping for after eternal sunshine, but maybe this will just be a pit-stop to something greater.  or maybe this is something greater?

[Pozer]

or maybe, just maybe, it's one of things that will fall through.

[bonanzataz]

come ON guys! what did all of you say when your beloved pta was announced to be making an adam sandler romantic comedy? hunh?!

[Bethie]

Dave Chappelle is teaming up with Michel Gondry

I'm interested in hearing how their conversations will go








Did any of you buy the September issue of W magazine?

[meatwad]

i'm wondering if this has anything to do with the film. This is from the okayplayer message boards...

A special neighborhood in New York will host the "block party" featuring artists: Kanye West, Mos Def, Common, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Dead Prez and The Roots with Dave Chappelle serving as the event's master of ceremonies.

Ticket Info
The tickets are FREE. However, everyone must be bussed in from NYC. We will give you bus info as soon as it is locked down.

EVERYONE MUST BE BUSSED TO THE EVENT! The block party will last from 12pm - 9pm. You must be available from 12 noon till 9 pm.


Location & Arrival Time
Event Location:
A Secret Location in New York City
(you MUST be bussed in from NYC)

Event Date:
September 18, 2004

Arrival Time: 11:30am


Show Requirements
- You must be at least 18 years old to attend this event.
- We ask that you do not wear solid white clothing or logos, as they are not camera-friendly.
- No cameras or recording devices will be allowed in the event.
- Everyone attending the event must go through a security check before gaining access. Please downsize any purses or bags you are bringing with[/i] you.

[modage]

from the Toronto Film Festival...



Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Programme:  SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Director:  Michel Gondry
Country:  USA
Year:  2005
Language:  English
Time:  100 minutes
Film Types:  Colour/HDCAM
Rating:  14A

SCREENING TIMES:  
Monday, September 12    9:00 PM    VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)  
Wednesday, September 14    9:00 AM    VARSITY 8  

Production Company: Bob Yari Productions/Pilot Boy Productions
Executive Producer: Greg Manocherian, Doug Levine, Skot Bright
Producer: David Chappelle, Bob Yari
Screenplay: David Chappelle
Cinematography: Ellen Kuras
Editor: Sarah Flack, Jeff Buchanan
Music: Cory Smith
Principal Cast: Featuring: Dave Chappelle, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Talib Kwali, Kanye West, The Roots, Common, Dead Prez, The Fugees

What do you do when your net worth tops fifty million dollars? Start with a party. Dave Chappelle's wicked, chilled-out comedy show caused a sensation and catapulted him to a massive contract renewal. In 2004, the future looked infinite - and so did the pressure. To unwind, Dave decided to throw himself a little block party.

Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Dead Prez, Jill Scott, The Roots plus one top-secret closing act: this concert would gather some of music's hippest performers at a mystery location in Brooklyn. There would be no tickets, no advertising: Chappelle tapped underground networks to reach his audience. Even better, he invited directorial wizard Michel Gondry to film the festivities.

The result is electric. Gondry follows Chappelle back to his Cleveland, Ohio neighbourhood, where he rolls up on unsuspecting former neighbours to hand out invites. He even finds a marching band and brings them along. He plays a rough version of "'Round Midnight" on the piano, confessing his love for both music and comedy. "I'm mediocre at both," he jokes, "and yet have managed to talk my way into a fortune."

Chappelle can be brutally funny, but he often reserves his most searing lines for himself. As the concert begins, it becomes clear that he needs this party as much as his audience craves it. The skies threaten all day, but the music wins out.

West launches into a rousing version of "Jesus Walks," with the marching band blasting out counterpoint. Badu makes an entrance in a puffy afro wig. The wind keeps blowing it back, so she yanks it off and keeps singing - a great moment, but she tops it when she returns to join Scott for a duet. "This is the concert I always wanted to see," Chappelle crows.

Then, after having interspersed the music with his own freestyle comedy all day, Chappelle comes out to announce the headline act: The Fugees. For the first time since 1997, Lauryn Hill, Pras and Wyclef Jean hit the stage together. There are gasps. And then the music kicks in.

[MacGuffin]

Chappelle's 'Block Party' booked at Toronto

"Dave Chappelle's Block Party," a concert documentary revolving around a giant bash the comedian threw for himself, has been sold at the Toronto International Film Festival after a bidding war between two studios.

The eventual victor was Rogue Pictures, the genre arm of Universal Pictures' Focus Features label, which will release the film next year. Also bidding, sources said, was Paramount Pictures and its MTV Films arm.

Sources close to the production tagged the complex deal at $7 million, with the film's major participants receiving a share of box office revenues as well.

"Block Party" was directed by Michel Gondry -- an Oscar winner for the screenplay of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which Focus Features released. The 2004 neighborhood jam featured performances by the Fugees and Kanye West.

About halfway through the movie's first public screening Monday night, Rogue began aggressively pursuing the deal for worldwide rights, including home video rights, and it closed late Tuesday night. The film's eventual DVD release is expected to be of particular value since DVD releases of Chappelle's Comedy Central series "Chappelle's Show" have been big sellers.

Before Toronto, a rougher version of the film was shown to several distributors, who didn't immediately bite.

"I don't regret showing the earlier version," said producer Bob Yari, who partnered on the project with Chappelle. "It may have been misunderstood, but it was done primarily for feedback."

By the end of its more polished public unveiling -- which was still billed as a "work-in-progress" screening in Toronto -- several major executives saw the crowd's enthusiastic response, which eased some doubts.

"The movie is incredibly dynamic and tremendously entertaining," Rogue president David Linde said. "It's a new kind of entertainment for all kinds of audiences."

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

[pete]

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/winter2006/features/beat_back.php

[MacGuffin]

Poster Exclusive: Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Chappelle and friends bring it in Brooklyn.

IGN FilmForce has your first look at the brand new poster for Dave Chappell's Block Party. Check it out below!

The film, from Rogue Pictures, spotlights comedy superstar Dave Chappelle as he presents a Brooklyn neighborhood with its very own once-in-a-lifetime free block party. The unprecedented combination of comedy and music was shot on location. In addition to Mr. Chappelle performing all-new material, the stellar roster of artists includes Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Roots, Cody ChesnuTT, Big Daddy Kane, and - reunited for their first performance in over seven years - the Fugees.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind helmer Michel Gondry and cinematographer Ellen Kuras captured the whole thing in addition to private rehearsal footage of Chappelle and company from the small Ohio town he calls home.

In Ohio, Mr. Chappelle wandered through town handing out golden tickets to invite several dozen citizens to join the party, providing transportation and lodging for their first-time-ever visit to Brooklyn. Ohio's Central State University marching band made the trip and helped kick off the festivities at the intersection of Quincy and Downing Streets. As a diverse crowd comes together, Mr. Chappelle's freestyle wit guides them (and the film audience) through a day-long, life-affirming celebration of music and comedy, history and community.

Dave Chappell's Block Party has been rated R by the MPAA. The movie arrives in theaters on March 3, 2006.

[MacGuffin]

Gondry + Chappelle = Dirty Lego Jokes? Not Even Close
Famed director plays it straight for comedian's 'Block Party' movie.
Source: MTV.com

One of them is a 40-year-old French music-video-visionary-turned-Oscar-winning-writer/director, the other is a 32-year-old raunchy stand-up comic who created one of the hottest shows on basic cable. According to "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" director Michel Gondry, however, he and Dave Chappelle have more in common than you might think.

"He'd seen my music videos; he hadn't seen my movies," Gondry recalled of the unlikely friendship that yielded "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," which is part concert film, part standup concert and hits theaters March 3. "I had done this video for Steriogram ('Walkie Talkie Man') and we watched it together; it's a video where everything is knitted. ... I guess he liked it."

That would be a pretty easy guess, considering that Gondry's dazzling efforts (the White Stripes' all-Lego "Fell in Love With a Girl," for instance) have reduced many of Hollywood's top creative talents (including Jim Carrey and Jack Black) into starry-eyed superfans begging for a collaboration. With "Block Party," however, Gondry has set aside his trademark action figures, miniatures and pop-art-influenced stages for what might be his most daring visual depiction yet: reality.

"The story is that Dave had been doing his show, and he always invites, on the show, artists he likes, like Mos Def," the stick-thin, exuberant auteur continued. "It is where comedy meets performance music. He wanted to do a show; he's very successful, and he wanted to do a show to promote them. Obviously, the common bond between all these bands is that they're trying to say something with their lyrics. It's not only about showing off and bragging. It tends to have a message, and we wanted to put them all together and have this concert."

In summer 2004, then, Chappelle took a few of the enormous paychecks he received from "Chappelle's Show" and threw a party. In the days preceding the event, Chappelle went to some of New York's poorest neighborhoods and handed out golden tickets to the show, Willie Wonka style. Mos Def showed up, as did Kanye West, Jill Scott, John Legend, Common, Big Daddy Kane and dozens of other famous friends. Raindrops fell, people sang along and food was served.

Looking back, Gondry is happy to say he was there every step of the way. "People had suggested that he [have the concert in] Central Park. ... My first contribution [was that] I suggested he should go to a place where it would mean more for the people who lived there," Gondry recalled. "That's how we ended up at Fort Greene, which is in Brooklyn."

The timing was perfect for the director, who'd been itching to collaborate with many of the acts that Chappelle happened to choose. "I think hip-hop music is the only popular music now that's moving forward," said Gondry, whose "Sunshine" won him a screenwriting Oscar. "I think alternative rock is really backlogged. I was always very interested to work with hip-hop artists, and it would never happen because I wasn't in the right place at the right time. David contacted me, and he offered me the chance to shoot this concert with all of them at once ... all these guys I'd been worshipping forever."

For Gondry and many of the others in attendance, the highlight of the show was the startling reunion of the Fugees, who hadn't performed together in six years. "It was a very emotional moment when David turned to them, and you can see them coming through the crowd," Gondry beamed. "When they come onstage, you can see the joy they have to be together again. It was really joyful to see that."

For better or worse, "Block Party" received an unexpected dose of extra publicity last year when Chappelle went off the grid, leaving many of his friends and colleagues wondering if he'd ever return to Hollywood (see "Dave Chappelle Speaks: 'I'm Not Crazy; I'm Not Smoking Crack' "). "He didn't really disappear," the director said, insisting that Chappelle always kept in touch with those he considered to be in his corner. "I talked to him every weekend."

Such loyalty might just pay off again in the long term, as Gondry and Chappelle have discussed plans to team up on a more traditional narrative film. "I have some ideas that I'd like to grab him and convince him to do," Gondry grinned.

[modage]

I think hip-hop music is the only popular music now that's moving forward, I think alternative rock is really backlogged.

what an asshole.  an artists job is NOT to change.  why does music need to move forward?