How Mike White Came Up With The Idea For Jack Black’s School Of Rock

Let's rewind and join Sandy and Terry as they chat about how writer, actor, and director Mike White (The White Lotus) came up with the hit movie, “The School of Rock,” which has been loved by audiences and critics alike. "School of Rock" played a role in boosting Black’s profile and stardom, highlighting his comedic and musical talents to a broader audience.

The PAGE International Screenwriting Awards sponsors the WRITERS' HANGOUT.
Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller

Transcript

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Hello, my name is Sandy Adamis, the social media director for the page, international Screenwriting Awards, and your host for the Writer's Hangout. A podcast that celebrates the many stages of writing, from inspiration to the first draft, revising, getting a project made and everything in between. We'll talk to the best and the brightest in the entertainment industry and create a space where you can hang out, learn from the pros, and have fun. And we're rolling. Hi, I'm Sandy. Adam Midas. Hi, I am Terry Sampson. Terry. I'm always fascinated where the creative idea comes from when a writer sits down to write a movie. Yes. I find the process fascinating from when the epiphany hits a writer, and then how the writer shapes it from their life experience. And a great example of this and what we're gonna be talking about today is School of Rock. Wonderful. Have you ever seen the movie school rack a couple times? So good. Really good movie. Yes, really good. School Rock came out on October 3rd, 2003? My wife worked on a TV version of it. I know Sharon worked on that. Yeah, it was at Paramount too, which is, yeah, paramount did the movie. I also really liked the Paramount lot. It was my number one favorite lot till. Warner Brothers has taken that spot for me, but I like the paramount lot because of the gate. And the gate is from is the original gate. It's just set back a little bit further. And then there's a new gate before that, but it's the gate in sunset Boulevard, my favorite movie. Yeah. And yeah. The offices where they were writing their script, that street still exists. It's a classic place. Here's my classic story for it. I used to go for any reason when, in the early days when Sharon was first working on Paramount's lot, and so I was on there quite a bit and I had this funky little truck at the time and I was waiting, taking my turn to get out. Do you know that? The, it would be on the west side gate goer. There was always yeah. You'd always have to wait that out. There's always like a long line. So I'm sitting there waiting and I turn and I see the hotdog vendor there, loss control, and it's driving right at me. Almost a sudden you're in a Abbott and Costello movie. I am, and I'm staring at it and I look ahead and I go, I can't go anywhere. And he hits my little truck and I go out there and my truck was not new, it was quite old actually at the time. He was apologizing. He offered me a hot dog while I was eating the hot dog. He was looking at the dent in the side of my truck and he goes, gee, what are we gonna do? I go, nothing. The car's not even worth getting this thing pinged out. I go, it's fine. So I went home and I took a little. Ball, P Hammer, and I said, maybe I can get this out myself. And I'm pounding on it and I go, wait a minute, this sounds pretty good. So I bring a microphone, a couple of microphones out and I'm recording me taking the ping out and I take that sound and I sample it into a snare drum. And I used it on a for family ties. Wow, how about that? Wow. I that actually Brian De Palma should have. Made that the plot for blowout? Yes, I really think so. Yeah. Every, I think every movie needs a hot dog accident. Yes. Okay. Back. It's a school of rock. And how Mike White, the writer came up with the idea School Rock. Can you read the plot I can Overly enthusiastic guitarist Dewey Finn, played by Jack Black. It's thrown out of his bar band, finds himself in desperate need of work. Posing as a substitute music teacher at an elite private elementary school, he exposes his students to the hard rock gods. He idolizes and emulates much to the consternation of the uptight principle. Joan Kosack played beautifully by Joan Kosack. I might add. Yes, as he gets his privileged and precocious charges in touch with their inner rock and roll animals, he imagines redemption at a local battle of the bands. The audience and critics equally love the film, and Jack Black was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best actor. Man. Did he move around a lot in that movie? One thing, one thing before I forget. These are not our words. This was in the synopsis from Google. It's the uptight principle. Joan Cusack. I would really like to correct that. She's the under pressure. Principal she has That's right. So much pressure on her shoulders. She's not uptight. Let's no, let's just not use that uptight in women ever again in a sentence. But I just had to say that and Okay. So she was more or less, she was more or less in a what's gonna go wrong next mode. Exactly. School of Rock was directed by Richard Linklater, who we know from Boyhood, dazed, and Confused. And the boyfriend to Greta Gerwig, Jack Black, who by the way, eats the screen and leaves no crumbs. Even before filming began, black New School of Rock was gonna be different. There's a quote from Rolling Stones, the Oral History of School of Rock, when Jack talks about this time period. Can you read it, Terry? Yes. He says, when we did the read through, that's when I felt it. Table reads are always boring because movies are not meant to be read at a table. They're meant to be seen on a big screen, but this was the first time where it just killed. I was like, oh my God, this is a diamond. Every scene is clicking and the laughs are strong in the room. I could feel right out of the gate that something special is happening. That's pretty cool. Can you explain to the writers out there who might not know what a table read is? Yeah. In the process of getting a show up and running and ready to be filmed, a table read is a structured read through of a screenplay or script by actors with speaking parts In a film, TV show or play, the table read is often the first time that everyone involved in the production comes together. For the writers out there, one of the best ways to make your screenplay better is hearing it out loud. Hearing it out loud is so different from what you hear inside your head when you're reading your script. At American Dreams, the showrunner, Jonathan Prince, ask the cast at every table read to elect a camper of the week from the crew in the production office, and I was camper of the week. One week and I got a certificate for a massage. Oh, nice. Yeah, it was a nice gift. Wow. Great. Yeah, that's a nice idea. Yeah. Now, Mike White, the writer of the movie plays Jack Black's best friend, Sarah Silverman. She does an amazing job with a very thankless role. She transcends the part. In fact, all these actors in this movie are really good. Yeah. Everybody is hitting on all cylinders. Yeah, and the kids are wonderful. The director Richard said he would only do the movie if they cast kids who were musicians first and actors second, and I think that really works for the movie. Yeah, I think so too. Now, how did Mike White come up with the idea of School of Rock? By the way, I am a big fan of Mike White. I think I was first became aware of Mike White from his HBO series. Enlightened. Enlightened was a self-destructive woman, Laura Dern, who has a spiritual awakening and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, and she creates havoc at home and work. It's so funny. I really, and there's a mystery and it's really fun. That's the first time I discovered him. And what was the name of that movie? It is called Enlightened. It was a series on HBO with Laura Dern. Really good. I've watched it twice actually. The series Mike's also in the series. He plays Laura Dern's coworker, and then I vaguely remember hearing about a writer who did Survivor. I always always remembered that kind of out there in the zeitgeist. And that was Mike White. He participated in Survivor Wild. Really? I think you can go online and just see YouTube clips of him. Now, the writers out there might know Mike White from his latest hit series, white Lotus. Oh yes. And with that line. Oh, Jennifer Coolidge. I'm gonna see if I can pull this off. Terry. These guys are trying to kill me. No, that was the wicked witch of the West. These guys can't do it. Oh, it's such a good line. She's on the yacht. Yeah. Alright. How did it all come about? In my research, there are two factors and they only cross in one article, but I'll give you the two factors because. I came across both of them quite frequently. The first, the Langley School Music Project. The Langley School of Music Project is a collection of recordings of children's choruses, singing pop hits by the likes of the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney and David Bowie. They were originally recorded in 19. 1976 and forgotten about. And then they were found and re-released 25 years later and they became a cult hit, obviously a cult hit that you and I aren't part of.'cause I had never heard of this. And it became a example of outsider music. Now I kept seeing the Langley School music. Project mentioned alongside the School of Rock. In my research, I never read anything in Mike White's words saying that he heard the Langley School of Music project before he wrote School of Rock. And here's what Mike White said, how he came up with the idea behind School of Rock. Jack was my next door neighbor for a few years. He was starting to get a lot of heat as an actor, and he would occasionally give me scripts that had been submitted to him to Star in. They were invariably these flat comedies, or he was like the John Belushi guy who gets drunk and falls through a sliding glass door or something. I'm reading these scripts and I was like. I could do better than this. Obviously, music is a big passion of his. He has his band, tenacious DI had the idea of him leading a band of little kids. Somehow it just seemed like a funny visual. Then I got the idea that it would be fun to have him be more of a WC Fields a little bit. Like a guy who isn't really somebody you'd want around kids, but that's part of the fun. Now, at the time, Jack Black was best known for his role as the record store, know-it-all from High Fidelity. Did you like that movie, Terry High Fidelity? Yeah. I think you would like it. Yeah. Now the. Infamous Scott Rudin was the producer of School of Rock. I'll leave out Scott Rudins. Complicated story for now, but it was Scott Rudins idea to get Richard to Direct School of Rock. Terry, will you read the quote from the Oral History of School of Rock from Rolling Stone? Sure. Rudin gives me a script and says, Jack black's attached. What do you think? I'm like, eh, I don't know. How to do this. I pass. I got a call that was like, Scott Rudin, the producer isn't accepting your pass. And I'm like, what does that mean? He was just sure that I was the right guy to pull this off. It was a huge different thing for me to come aboard. I was a color on his palette. Someone had cast me as the right person to perhaps realize this thing that he thought had potential. I was always a little frustrated with a lot of studio comedies. I just think they're not. Working hard enough or they could be better. So I was like, okay, big mouth. This is your chance to actually make a studio comedy that maybe works at that level. Terry, would you also read what Jack Black said about his collaborators White and Link later? Yes. I loved Richard Linkletter because I love Slacker. And I thought Dazed and Confused was brilliant. Obviously he knew Rock. I was nervous though because it seemed like all of his movies were low budget indie experiments. This was potentially to be a big summer hit, but Scott Rudin was, no, you are wrong. I'm taking over and I. Forcing this to happen. Link letter. Went over the script with a fine tooth comb to try to keep it grounded, keep it real, even though it comes off crazy. He was addressing things like, I don't believe this. They're doing a music class and nobody finds out. They have to soundproof the classroom, so let's do this. Those little elements of keeping it on planet Earth really served it. I couldn't agree with Richard Moore grounding that movie really helped it in how they address soundproofing. The room was. Brilliant. At one point, Jack Black simply turns to a couple of the kids and he says, we need to work on soundproofing the room. There was no elaborate scene of soundproofing the room. Next time when they're singing, you just assume they figured out how to soundproof the room. So then the kids are cast with Richard's rule, musicians Before Actors. They shoot it and it's 20 years later and you can watch the movie with teens, toddlers, and parents. There you go. As I mentioned at the Top School Rock was released on October 3rd, 2003 by Paramount Pictures grossing million worldwide on a$35 million budget. The film received positive reviews from critics with praises for Jack Black's performance. It was the highest grossing music themed comedy of all time until the release of, do you wanna Take a Guess? Highest? I don't pitch Perfect. Two real. Yes. A stage musical adaption opened on Broadway in December 18, and as you mentioned, the television adaption for Nickelodeon premiered on March 12th, 2016. Do you and Sharon celebrate that date? No. That's a rep for the writer's hangout. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe and thrive till we get to hang out again. Keep writing. The world needs your stories. The Writers Hangout is sponsored by the Page, international Screenwriting Awards executive producer Kristin Vern, producers Terry Sampson and Sandy Adamis. Music by Ethan Stoller.