A new trailer for Netflix and Baz Luhrman‘s new series The Get Down has been released, and if the last one wasn’t enough to get you excited about the Romeo & Juliet director’s late ’70s South Bronx saga, this latest one ought to do the trick.
The series follows a group of friends growing up amid the social unrest and cultural awakening of hip hop happening at the time in the rundown New York borough. A coming of age tale, the series will tell the story of this rag-tag group of inner city teenagers who “armed only with verbal games, improvised dance steps, some markers and spray cans… will make a pact that becomes bigger than all of them and change their lives — and the world — forever. ”
Luhrman’s first work behind the camera since The Great Gatsby, judging from this teaser trailer we’ve been given The Get Down has all the hallmarks of a top-notch Luhrman affair. Music. Dancing. And some amazing retro fashion. Seems the Luhrman style is well and truly alive and kicking.
Starring Justice Smith (Paper Towns) as the ambitious Ezekiel, as well as Jimmy Smits, Shameik Moore, Giancarlo Esposito, Yolonda Ross and of course the previously confirmed Man In Black Jnr Jaden Smith, to say there is a lot of exciting talent on board is an understatement. The most exciting member of the project, however, would have to be rapper Nas, who aside from being a producer on the show, is also helping Luhrman write the raps and rhymes written and spoken by the characters.
“One of the great collaborations is that I’ve been working really closely in creating these rhymes, and he’s a producer on the film, with one of the most iconic voices of the ’90s and that’s Nas,” Luhrmann told Entertainment Weekly recently.
“And so Nas has been this other huge creative force in the production. And it’s been playing really, really successfully.”
Describing the rhymes as a mixture of “pure rap, narration, and sort-of Greek chorus comment,” with Nas on board to write them you can color me excited.
Anyway, the series airs on Netflix August 12th, but in the meantime check out the trailer for yourself here below.
Watch: The Get Down – Trailer
