Imagine, for a moment, if Top of the Pops had been about 100% funkier and 300% cooler. The result might look something like Soul Train, the US music show that is now headed for a movie screen near you.
The show ran from 1971 to 2006, focusing on R'n'B, soul, disco and hip hop with occasional jazz and gospel. It was produced by Don Cornelius, who also hosted the show until 1993. The godfather of cool is now one of the producers on a proposed 1980s-set film version, with Malcolm "The Malcshake" Spellman* writing.
The story will follow an LA 'hood-based "body popper" who sees his ticket out of the ghetto in a planned Soul Train tour around the US (something Cornelius apparently wanted to produce but never managed). "All of the hip-hop street dances you see today were born during that time period and were first seen on that show, and I remember doing all of them when I was a kid," Spellman told Variety. "Writing with Don involved is quite an experience. He's still the godfather of cool."
No word on a start date yet for what sounds like a period Step Up, but fingers crossed it manages to catch some of the show's energy and doesn't become just another dance movie.
*Hey, IMDB lists that as a nickname, and who are we to argue?