K-Pops: What We Know So Far
From the movie’s origins to its star-studded cast!
K-Pops is an upcoming father-son comedy movie starring real father and son Anderson .Paak and Soul Rasheed. .Paak, who co-wrote the script and directed the film, stars as BJ, a past-his-prime musician who gets a gig as a house band’s drummer on a (fictional) South Korean reality show called Wild Card. He soon finds out that Tae Young, one of the contestants, is the son BJ never knew he had!
Read on for more details about this upcoming project!
General Information
The movie is nearly two hours long and is billed as a dramedy. It was co-written by .Paak and Khaila Amazan.
This movie’s title’s stylization remains unclear... It is written as K-Pops! on IMDb; it is KPOPS in Variety; it is K-POPS! on EST Studios’ website; and it is K-Pops in Billboard, in The Hollywood Reporter, and on the Toronto International Film Festival’s website. Online comments about the movie are all over the place when it comes to including or not including capital letters, a hyphen, and/or an exclamation point. This article will be updated when there is official confirmation about how the title should be written.
The Plot’s Inspiration
The concept started coming together during the Covid-related 2020 lockdowns. Having lots of time together at home, the father and son explored shared creative interests while making YouTube videos. Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, .Paak described K-Pops as “a fun, lighthearted film born from my love for music and inspired by my family while we were quarantined.”
The Timeline
After brainstorming and script-writing starting in 2020, K-Pops started filming in Los Angeles in the fall of 2023. (A SAG-AFTRA interim agreement was reached with Stampede Ventures to film amid the then-ongoing actors strike.) Filming also took place in Al-Ula and South Korea, the latter being where .Paak’s mother is from; .Paak described filming there as a homecoming of sorts.
Famous Cameos
Billboard confirmed that SEVENTEEN’s VERNON’s time on a film set this past summer was for K-Pops! Besides VERNON, familiar faces for long-time K-pop fans that appear in the movie include Jay Park and Kevin Woo.
Other Cast Members
The cast of K-Pops includes Yvette Nicole Brown (Community, The Mayor), Jee Young Han (Unprisoned, Perry Mason), Dumbfoundead (aka Jon Park), Will Jay, and many others.
What’s New for .Paak - and What’s Not
While this is .Paak’s directorial debut, he is not entirely new to acting. He voiced Prince Darnell in Trolls World Tour and Trolls Band Together, and he played D Squiz in the movie Sweet Dreams.
The Soundtrack
Naturally, K-Pops will feature plenty of music, made by K-pop industry icons including Jay Park, Crush, Dem Jointz, and .Paak himself.
Original music for the film was also made by Emily Bear, who started earning praise from a very early age, becoming the youngest-ever Ravinia Festival performer at age five! She went on to win numerous awards, and she was a featured pianist on Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour!
The Teams Behind the Film
There is a lengthy list of companies backing this movie, and it includes…
Stampede Ventures, a company that was started in 2018 by Warner Brothers veteran Greg Silverman.
EST Studios, which was founded less than three years ago but has already helped distribute hits like Chabak - Night of Murder and Romance, which reached No. 1 on Netflix in South Korea, and Hidden Letters, which was shortlisted for an Oscar and nominated for several other awards.
.Paak’s company, Apeshit Films.
Dumbfoundead’s company, Big Dummie Productions, named after a still-to-be-released comedy series about Dumbfoundead’s, aka Jon Park’s, life. Park is a long-time friend of Anderson .Paak’s, making the co-production of .Paak’s directorial debut no surprise.
Additionally, Live Nation Productions has an equity investment in this film.
The Premiere
K-Pops had its debut screening on September 7 as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. An official premiere and/or streaming date for the general public is to be announced, and this article will be updated when it is!
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