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There’s just something sort of befuddling about this Weezer movie. (See: Ben Schwartz prompting a concert crowd to react to Weezer fighting a villain on stage.) Like, the latest news is that they’ve apparently cast Jack Black—which is fine and normal, makes sense even—but Rivers Cuomo broke the news on the band’s Discord server with an AI-generated poster that reads “Weezer co-starring Jack Black” and images of the men together (via Reddit). “Nope, it’s real,” Cuomo declared. Which part? The image? Only kind of. The casting? Well, sure.
Black is a natural fit for the Weezer movie, not only because he’s a musical guy and also in everything lately, but also because he has a longtime association with the group. Weezer and Black’s band Tenacious D toured together in 2001, and his wife Tanya Haden has played cello for Weezer on their 2003 cover of “Worry Rock” by Green Day. (As it happens, Green Day is also making a movie.) Spiritually, a Weezer movie is a likely place for Black to be.
Since the revered ’90s outfit confirmed the film at Coachella, we’ve gotten a few more mostly unconfirmed details about what the deal is. Fan speculation indicates Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Catfish, Nerve) are the directors of the project. Reports have suggested it will be a cross between Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The cast list is said to include Schwartz, Eric André, Johnny Knoxville, Juliette Lewis, and Keanu Reeves. Reeves is supposedly playing the villain in the film, and he too has a historic Weezer connection; per Billboard, Weezer’s first-ever public gig was opening for Reeves’ band Dogstar in 1992. Those roles reversed in 2024 when Dogstar opened for Weezer as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations for The Blue Album. According to journalist Jeff Sneider, the “rivalry” between the two bands is the plot’s central conflict.