The School of Rock
Short description
Dewey Finn is a rock guitarist whose career has collapsed and who is struggling financially. When his bandmates throw him out and his roommate presses him for rent, he impersonates his friend Ned Schneebly to take a substitute teaching position at a strict private elementary school. The principal, Rosalie Mullins, keeps a close watch on him, but Dewey sees the classroom as a place to pass on what he knows. He introduces his young, high-achieving pupils to rock music, instruments and performance, training them for a battle of the bands while keeping the whole project hidden from the school. Among the children is Zack, a gifted nine-year-old guitarist.
Richard Linklater directed the film, the seventh of the twenty-two features listed for him, following Waking Life and preceding Before Sunset. Mike White wrote the screenplay and appears as Ned, while Scott Rudin produced. Jack Black leads the cast as Dewey, with Joan Cusack as the principal, Sarah Silverman as Patty Di Marco, and Miranda Cosgrove and Joey Gaydos Jr. as pupils. The credited cast runs to seventy-one and the crew to seventy-four.
The film was released in October 2003 and runs 110 minutes. Made for about 35 million dollars, it took roughly 131 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.2 from around 357,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.1 from more than 6,000. A critics' rating of 7.9 from 199 reviews sits above both audience scores, so reviewers rated it more warmly than the wider public did.
What's left behind the scenes
- The idea for the film came to screenwriter Mike White when he became neighbors with Jack Black. White often saw the actor running naked through the hallways and heard the music that Black played at full volume in his apartment (this music was later used in the film). White also played the teacher in the film who was replaced by Dewey (Black).
- Director Stephen Frears was initially involved in the project.
- Jack Black was cast as the music teacher for a reason, as he is also known as a guitarist and singer performing in the parody rock band “Tenacious D”.
- In the final scene, when Jack Black's character jumps from the stage onto the audience, the actor was secured by stunt performers.
- All the cars driven by the students' parents are of the same make – Volvo.
- The members of the rock band Led Zeppelin, who are generally reluctant to grant permission for the use of their music for commercial purposes, allowed their song “Immigrant Song” to be included in the film because the filmmakers made the request in a rather unusual form. This request was filmed by the film’s director, Richard Linklater; in a video that later appeared on the DVD version of the film, Jack Black, in the presence of a thousand screaming fans, asks Led Zeppelin to do him this favor.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
