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When word first broke that the comedy trio known as The Lonely Island—made up of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone—were going to be writing and starring in a new movie, there was great reason to be excited. While Schaffer and Taccone have separately helmed some pretty terrific movies, from Hot Rod to the true comedy classic Macgruber, the idea of the Lonely Island trio coming together to make a new film was highly exciting, especially with Judd Apatow involved as a producer.
However, the project was shrouded in secrecy through production, with the true nature and title of the film only coming to light recently ahead of the first Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping trailer. Samberg stars in the comedy as a rapper who, after his latest album bombs, re-forms his old boy band. As we saw in the trailer, directors Schaffer and Taccone stage the entire film as a mockumentary in the vein of the recent pop star documentary trend, which blends concert footage with talking head interviews and behind-the-scenes shots. To hilarious results, obviously.
But there’s yet another reason to be excited for Popstar—it heralds the arrival of a brand new Lonely Island record. Collider’s own Steve Weintraub recently caught up with Samberg at CinemaCon, where he was unveiling footage from his upcoming animated film Storks, and Samberg revealed that the process of making Popstar wasn’t just making a new movie, but also creating a new album:
“The soundtrack is a new Lonely Island record. There’s more of just me or me with a guest on it than all three of us because of the structure of the story, and it’s a little more pop influenced. Generally we’re more hyper rap and hip-hop stuff, [but] there’s more singing. I’m doing more singing than I ever have before; we got real comfortable with the autotune (laughs). It’s kind of like trying to mirror the trends in popular music now anyhow, which is a lot of people are rapping and singing on their own songs, so that was more the angle we took with it.”
So yeah, not only are we getting a new Lonely Island movie that tackles pop stardom head on, but we also get a full Lonely Island album as well, albeit in the form of songs from Samberg’s character Connor.
During the interview Samberg also revealed why he signed on to star in Storks and talked about the success of the hilarious Fox comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It’s a great watch if you’re a fan of The Lonely Island and/or Samberg, and you can check it out above with a time index below. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping opens in theaters on June 3rd while Storks lands on September 23rd.
Andy Samberg:
- :10 – Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the show’s renewal.
- 1:30 – Talks about Popstar and reveals the film has a full album of new music.
- 2:30 – Says the soundtrack is a new Lonely Island record and talks about its differences from their previous albums.
- 3:10 – The cameos.
- 4:00 – The influence of This Is Spinal Tap on the film.
- 5:10 – Storks and why he got involved.
