After making his acting debut with SLICE, a comedic crime fantasy that tells the tale of when a pizza delivery driver is murdered on the job, multi-talented music mogul Chance the Rapper has been named as the point man of HOPE, an upcoming original movie musical for MGM. For the project, the three-time Grammy winner will act as a producer while joining forces with Haight Films’ Pat Corcoran and Tradecraft’s Scott Bernstein to produce the toe-tapping feature. Scripting the rhythm-infected endeavor is Carlito Rodriguez, who in the past has contributed to such television programs as Fox's EMPIRE and HBO's THE LEFTOVERS. In charge of the film's original music composition will be Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Nico Segal (formerly known to many as Donnie Trumpet). As a longtime collaborator and friend of Chance the Rapper, the duo had formed Chance and The Social Experiment in Chicago, which had turned plenty of heads with their 2015 album Surf.
For HOPE, Segal and Chance the Rapper will present film and music fans with a story that follows a group of Chicago teenagers that come together for the purpose of transmuting art into action within their community. As a Chicago native, the diverse and history-rich locale is quite close to the rapper's heart, and it's to be thought that HOPE will serve as a "good vibrations" love letter to the colorful city. In the past, Chance established the #SaveChicago initiative with his father in the interest of combating gun violence. During the campaign, Chance donated $1 million to local schools, and created Social Works, an organization intent on encouraging young people to express themselves through art rather than hails of gunfire and gang-related violence. As an extension of the rapper's work with Social Works, HOPE aims to spread its positive messaging to an even broader audience through the power of song as well as the silver screen.
“From day one, our mission at Haight Films’ has been to apply Haight Brand’s artist-first and Chicago-proud ideology to the film space. We are incredibly excited to be working alongside Chance, MGM and Scott Bernstein to bring this vision to life.” said Corcoran, Chance's longtime manager.
No other information related to HOPE is available at this time, though with Chance looking to share a positive message with the world in yet another big way, I suspect that we'll be hearing more about this ambitious and meaningful project from the YouTube sensation real soon.