Music isn’t
the only thing Andre 3000 plans to leave his mark on. The trendsetting one-half
of the multi-platinum rap duo OutKast has been bit by the acting bug, and now
wants to make children’s movies, with edgier themes.
"I’ve noticed that kids, they’re looking up to the Jay-Zs,
they’re looking up to OutKast,” Andre told the Associated Press. "So
kids’ movies and cartoons, they’re getting smarter … because it seems like
kids are cooler."
He plans to star in “The Hit,” a film about a fifth-grader
searching to find a new wife for his father, and learns that his next-door neighbor
is cupid.
He will also lend his talent behind the camera, as co-producer
of the venture.
“They called me about a project that wasn’t even a script
at the time," he said. "They pitched the idea to me and I loved it."
The deal with Nickelodeon and MTV Films will also allow the
lyrical thespian the option to produce and develop more TV projects down the
line, in which he says he has numerous ideas on.
“Even with videos, I’ve always been involved with writing
the concept and writing the narrative,” he said. “I felt like I
had something to offer to the film world.”
He attributes acting as the catalyst that helped him to focus
less on his ego, and more on the finished product.
“In music, if you don’t feel like going to the studio
that night, you don’t have to. When you’re in a film, you’re with a crew, it’s
not about you at all. Film is totally crossing out vanity and crossing out yourself,”
he said.
He landed his first major big-screen production this year with
a supporting role in, “Be Cool,” the follow-up to the 1995 hit,
“Get Shorty,” with John Travolta, and is fresh off the set from
wrapping “Four Brothers,” directed by John Singleton.
Even as movies
seem to have taken a front seat in his career, he is back in the studio with
partner Big Boi, as they begin work on a new album, following their best-seller,
Speakerboxx/The Love Below.