B-boys are back in a big way. According to Variety, the South Korean dance group Gamblerz, featured in Benson Lee's hit documentary Planet B-Boy, are teaming up with music producer/rapper Teddy Rile to star in Paramount's dance movie Hype Nation: Koreans hip to Paramount's 'Hype'. The movie, budgeted at $25 million, will follow dance battles between the Gamblerz and American R&B group B2K. The film will be directed by Alex Calzatti.
Production on the movie is scheduled to begin in July, with roughly 40% to be shot in the United States and 60% in South Korea. They're reportedly currently casting for a Korean female lead. Considering B2K's involvement, isn't this basically a sequel to You Got Served? No joke, knowing how awesome the Korean B-boy crews are, a friend and I actually hatched an idea for the sequel, calling it You Got Served: You've Got Seoul... long before I ever heard this news. Alas, it seems that Young Film has beat us to it.
Hopefully, with movies like Planet B-Boy, Always Be Boyz, and now this one, we're seeing a modern resurgence in the popularity and interest in breaking. Of course, the first time around, back into the 1980s, it led to some pretty ugly exploitation. (Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo?) But it's definitely good to see Asians leading the pack, and recognized as some of the best B-boys in the world.
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