Speaking at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge!) gave new details about the upcoming Netflix series The Get Down, Deadline reports.
The series, which Luhrmann co-created with Shawn Ryan (The Shield, Terriers), fits in very comfortably with the rest of Luhrmann’s work. The Get Down is very music focused, centering around people involved in the birth of different music scenes in 1970s New York City. The series covers music from disco to punk and hip-hop.
Luhrmann revealed at the Tribeca panel that a major contributor to the upcoming Netflix series, along with Grandmaster Flash, was rapper Nas (Nasir Jones), who has apparently been a major influence on one of the character arcs in the series.
According to Indiewire Luhrmann said of the arc, “One of the things which I don’t think anyone knows, because it’s not in the trailers — and we’ve been doing this for about a year now — is that one of the characters goes on and we discover that he’s actually a successful rap star in the 90’s, and he narrates it through rhyme, through rap.”
Luhrmann’s enjoyment at working with Netflix on The Get Down also came out during the Tribeca panel. “What’s going on in this streaming world, and why storytellers like us are attracted to it is, you have less constraint creatively than you do in the movies,” said Luhrmann. “They don’t come and say, ‘Would you make a pilot and we’ll decide whether we like it?’ They say, ‘Can you make 13 hours?’ At any given moment you’re in all parts of the process.”
The Get Down, Indiewire reports, will premiere on Netflix on August 12 this year. Netflix will release the series in two parts, with the first six episodes releasing on the 12th. The release date for the second part of the series has yet to be announced.
The cast of the new Netflix series includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Skylan Brooks, Giancarlo Esposito, Shameik Moore, Justice Smith, Tremaine Brown Jr., Mamoudou Athie, Herien Guardiola and Jimmy Smits.