‘School of Rock’ cast: Jack Black, Joan Cusack, More

In 2003, author Mike White collaborate with Black Jack and director Richard Linklater on the musical comedy School of Rock that later on spawned a Nickelodeon series and a Tony-nominated musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

In the original filmstruggling singer Dewey Finn (Black) goes undercover as a substitute teacher for a local prep school in order to earn some quick cash to pay his rent. He pretends to be his best friend and former bandmate, Ned Schneebly (White), and discovers that his students all have musical talents. He joins the children to form a band, planning to take part in a Battle of the Bands competition to bag his prize money.

White originally wrote the script after living next door Black in Los Angeles, wanting to show off his comedic chops.

“He was starting to get a lot of heat as an actor and from time to time he would give me scripts that had been submitted to him to star in,” White recalled to Viacom in October 2018. “They were always these flat comedies or it was, like, the John Belushi a guy who gets drunk and falls through a sliding glass door or something. I read these scripts and I was like, ‘We can do better than this.'”

The White lotus the creator continued, “Obviously, music is a big passion of (Black’s); he’s got his band Tenacious D. I got the idea that he was leading a band of little kids – somehow it looked like a funny visual.”

Scroll below to find out what the School of Rock the cast has been doing since the film’s debut: