Our dear friends (who don’t actually know us) at CinemaBlend are reporting that director Ron Howard will make a Jay-Z documentary. …Yup.
On the surface, that is the funniest headline I have read in a long time. It doesn’t even need a joke, just read it out loud. Let’s take the whitest McWhitey white guy in Hollywood and having him helm a documentary of the world’s greatest rapper! I’m pretty sure I have slipped into some alternate, wacky dimension where I’ll turn on the TV and see Usain Bolt driving for Nascar or hear Lady Gaga on Bloomberg Radio.
After reading into the story further, however, it actually sounds like a pretty cool idea. The documentary (a first for Ron Howard, hard to believe!) will center on Jay-Z’s upcoming music festival, Made in America. Specifically we will follow Jay-Z and the difficulties of actually assembling something as large as a two-day music festival. It also sounds as though the film will touch on Jay-Z as an icon and how he has appealed to several generations of music fans. Brian Grazer told the New York Post:
“The festival showcases 20 pre-eminent artists that speak to the new generation. I am producing the film with Steve Stoute and Jay. Ron is directing. It is going to be born through Jay-Z’s perspective … how he puts the event together … Jay stayed the king for a very long time … I can’t even begin to explain how he is capable of remaining relevant. He is a phenom, like a musical Michael Jordan.”
It certainly won’t hurt to have a backdrop of popular artists, such as Pearl Jam, Drake, Skrillex, Mike Snow, Chris Cornell, and Run DMC, to name a few. The full lineup for the Made in America festival can be found here.
I watch documentaries because I want to learn something about a subject I would otherwise know nothing about. I personally am not a huge fan of Jay-Z’s genre of music, but that would make a documentary all the more interesting to me.
Still, if Ron Howard and Jay-Z are really going to collaborate, I think a goldmine could be had in a sitcom! Howard and Mr. Z could find themselves as roommates in the big city! Howard could unexpectedly bring his boss (special guest star Don Rickles) home for dinner, prompting Jay-Z to try cooking a fancy dinner, while still keeping ALF out of sight, who of course keeps chasing after their cat, Mr. Wrinkles! Oh, and The Fonz is their landlord.
Or, you know, do the documentary thing.
Cinema Recon 