Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014: #144. Barry Levinson’s Rock the Kasbah

Rock the Kasbah

Director: Barry Levinson
Writer: Mitch Glazer
Producers: Steve Bing, Bill Block, Jacob Pechenik
U.S. Distributor: Open Road Films
Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Shia LaBeouf, Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Bill Murray, Danny McBride

In the 80’s, Barry Levinson appropriated restaurant lingo and male-bounding (Diner) , added some funk to the political process (Wag the Dog) and in the naughts has worked in docu, television, and The Bay, his low-budget genre film. An interesting mix of players and a quasi-return to American foreign policy has got us curious.

Gist: This tells the story of Richie Vance, a has-been rock manager (Murray) who takes his last remaining client (Willis) on a USO tour of Afghanistan. When Richie finds himself in Kabul, abandoned, penniless and without his passport, he discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice and manages her through Afghanistan’s version of “American Idol”, the wildly popular “Afghan Star.”

Release Date: Freshly picked up by Open Road Films, production is supposed to begin in June of this year – so this is looking at a 2015 release window if Open Road doesn’t try for December.

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