SYDNEY, Australia (SONY BMG Music) - OutKast are going to the movies! The next album from the formidable duo of Andre 3000 and
Big Boi will be a soundtrack to a feature film written by the pair, which is set in the 1930s in the deep south of the US. Both Andre 3000 and
Big Boi will star in the flick - it's set to be huge!
They absolutely blew us away with 2003's Grammy-award winning double-album 'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' featuring the monster hit 'Hey Ya!', and now OutKast are about to do it all over again with their latest double whammy - an album and a film! Both are as-yet untitled, but the album is slated for release in November, and the film in early 2006.
Set amidst the backdrop of a 1930s southern speakeasy, the film follows two characters,
Percival (Dre), the club's piano player, and
Rooster (Big Boi), the club's lead performer and manager, through intersecting stories of love and ambition.
As for the film's soundtrack, it will feature completely new OutKast tracks, but according to Big Boi, it will completely stand alone from the film.
"It's not like every song is about the movie," Big Boi told Billboard. "The movie is based on relationships: with your family, the most high, your business relationships. The album is about everything, not just relationships."
He added, "This is an OutKast album. It isn't like a soundtrack where we go get this person or that person."
But the sound of the album has been flavoured by the period of history in which the film is set.
"Just with the Ragtime feel," Big Boi told Billboard. "It's hip-hop. It's OutKast. It is what we've been doing for years. Some songs have a little more piano or whatever, but the whole project was a natural progression from a double CD. It was like, where do we go from here?"
Besides the OutKast boys, the cast of the film also includes Ving Rhames, Faizon Love, Malinda Williams, Paula Jai Parker, Jackie Long, legendary recording artist Patti LaBelle, plus singer Macy Gray, Tony Award winner Ben Vereen and Cicely Tyson.
It was shot by Award-winning director and longtime OutKast music video collaborator Bryan Barber on location in Wilmington, North Carolina and at Universal City, California, and will be distributed by Universal Pictures, worldwide.
