Idlewild -- the oft-delayed, much-anticipated musical from best-selling Atlanta hip-hop duo Outkast -- is, as they often say, a very movie movie. There's about 12 different films swimming around in it: Purple Rain, The Cotton Club, Chicago, Under the Cherry Moon, 42nd Street, Harlem Nights -- but it's also got nods to everything from Busby Berkeley musicals to '70s Black gangster films, art cinema to Some Like it Hot. Idlewild isn't coherent -- and it doesn't have a lot to say on the rare occasions it does make sense -- but it's also exuberant and wildly stylish. There's a question of who Idlewild is for -- the older audience who could appreciate its dance numbers and retro-style might be put off by the hip-hop elements; the kids who like hip-hop might be confused about why two of the most modern rappers in the game have set their big-screen debut in the 1930s. But that, frankly, just means more fun for those of us eager to take a chance on something different.

Deep in the heart of Prohibition-era Georgia, the small town of Idlewild is sleepy -- except at The Church, the raucous nightclub-and-cabaret owned by Ace (Faizon Love) and supplied by Spats (Ving Rhames). The entertainment at The Church is a pretty wild affair -- there's a full band, anchored by singer Rooster (Antwan A. Patton, a.k.a. Big Boi) and pianist Percival (André Benjamin, a.k.a. Andre3000). Spats is retiring, though, and wants to enjoy the good life -- including handing control of the local illegal booze empire to his right-hand man, Trumpy (Terrence Howard). Just as Trumpy is acting to ensure that the succession goes his way, noted singer Angel Daveport (Paula Patton) arrives from back East to play an extended engagement at The Church. Rooster must find a way to take control of The Church, even as he's trying to be a man to his wife and children; Percival has to summon up the courage to stop living in the shadow of his mortician father (Ben Vereen) and strike out as an artist.

Ok, this is good -- really, really good. There's an article in Sunday's New York Times by Roni Sarig that's a Bryan Barber profile combined with a look at the development of Idlewild (for those of you new on the Cinematical scene, Idlewild is the Outkast movie that I talk about all the time, and Barber is its director), and the end result is very encouraging. Get this: Sarig actually compares Barber to Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze, suggesting that he's following in their footsteps as he "translate[s] the eccentricity of [his] ... videos into iconoclastic features." Can I get an amen?

The history of Idlewild, as detailed in the article, is fascinating -- it was originally envisioned as one of an HBO series of six "low-budget urban movies" with budgets of about $1 million each, but as the project (first titled Speakerbox) grew, it eventually swallowed up the entire series, and grew too big for the TV screen. After years in development and production (and then on the shelf while Outkast finished the music), and despite the fact that Barber and producer Charles Roven apparently "did not see eye to eye on probably 98 percent of the picture," the director insists that the final product reflects his original awesome, weird-ass vision.

We'll all get to see for ourselves in just a matter of months now: Idlewild hits screens (supposedly 2500 of them, but I'll believe that when I see it) at the end of August.

This is my fifth, increasingly desperate post about the state of Idlewild, AKA The Outkast Movie. The pattern of the posts is pretty much as follows: I get all excited about the fact that the movie has a release date, and then it disappears off the face of the earth. And then the cycle happens again -- the current date, August 25, is its third in the past six months, and I've finally learned not going to celebrate until I actually see it on a marquee somewhere. Though the constant delays theoretically have to do with a desire on the part of Big Boi and Andre 3000 to get the music completely perfect (rather than a desperate need to rescue their movie from total suckage), I'm sure I'm not the only one who is both eagerly looking forward to this one and very, very worried about its quality. I mean, it's a prohibition musical, for God's sake -- there's a lot of room for failure there.

Just to get us even more excited about it movie, though, Chris Lee of the Los Angeles Times spoke with Idlewild director Bryan Barber last week, as well as the ubiquitous Terrence Howard, who appears in the film in a supporting role. Not surprisingly Barber, whose directing experience was limited to music videos (including the one for Outkast's Hey Ya!) prior to taking on this project, faced serious opposition from studio heads in getting the movie made. Not only was he a neophyte director and writer, but he was also trying to make a period, African-American musical. And his stars, best known as a team, would appear in only a handful of scenes together -- one can understand why studios were a little worried about sinking money into the project. By either a deal with the devil or insane luck, though, Barber got $27 million and a deal with Universal -- and, if all goes well, we'll get to see the result in August. Fingers and toes crossed.

[via GreenCine Daily]