Open Road has set a June 19 release date for Rick Famuyiwa’s "Dope," which features Zoë Kravitz, Keith Stanfield, Kimberly Elise, rap stars A$AP Rocky and Tyga who all appear in the film by Famuyiwa ("The Wood," "Brown Sugar," "Our Family Wedding"), which is described as a coming of age story about geeks growing up in Inglewood, California, trying to avoid gangs, drugs, and crime.
Starring Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons, the film follows a trio of best friends who are also in their own hip hop – punk band.
The official synopsis reads: "Malcolm is a high school geek with a high-top fade, carefully navigating life in The Bottoms, one of the toughest neighborhoods in Inglewood, California. He and his fellow outcasts share a voracious appreciation for all things ’90s hip-hop, opting to sport Cross-Colors and Z. Cavariccis at the risk of being clowned at school. He dreams of attending Harvard, but first he has to make it home every day. When a drug dealer takes a shine to Malcolm and invites him to his birthday party, Malcolm’s crew is swirled into a hilarious blender of offbeat characters and bad choices where redemption can only be found in Bitcoin."
Significant Productions’ Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi ("Fruitvale Station") are producers of the film, which features original music by Pharrell Williams.
The movie will open the 19th annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) on Thursday, June 11, at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, NYC, the movie’s New York City premiere; and will have its LA premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in a special pre-festival screening on Monday, June 8 at 7:30pm.
A redband trailer (you know what that means – foul language, lots of nudity, violence, and everything your parents kept you away from when you were a kid – although this doesn’t have much of any of that, unfortunately) has been released and is embedded below:
