Screenwriter  Mike White, who lived next door to Jack Black for three years, had been  wanting  to  write  a  film  geared  specifically  to  Black's unique personality.

"Jack  is  a  great  performer,  a  terrific  musician and the perfect antihero,"  says  White. "He's kind of unhinged in that fun way that Willie Wonka is, and I kept having this idea about him jamming around with a bunch of kids."

As far as Jack Black and Dewey Finn are concerned, the actor and the character he  portrays couldn't be more similar or different. Black is the singer,  songwriter,  guitarist  of his own band Tenacious D, and Finn is a singer,  songwriter  and  guitarist  of his own band No Vacancy, except they kick  him  out.  And,  while rock 'n' roll is a significant part of Black's life, rock 'n' roll is the only thing in Finn's life.

"I  just  love  the  way Mike writes," admits Black. "Not only does he have  that  funny  edge that suits me, but also he knows how to get into my voice."

With  the  genius  of Black's stellar comedic style and White's clever script,  "The  School  of  Rock"  already  exceeded  the  parameters  of  a traditional  comedy,  but  when  the  filmmakers recruited director Richard Linklater,  they  knew  they  had someone at the helm of the film who could take  it  even  further.  Known  for  such  landmark  independent  films as "Slacker"  and  "Dazed  and  Confused,"  Linklater  also  happens to have a penchant for making movies with a heavy influence of rock 'n' roll.

"I'm  a  big  fan  of  Jack, both as a musician and as an actor," says Linklater.  "And  Jack's  character,  a  struggling  musician willing to do almost  anything  to  help  realise his dreams, reminded me of my formative years as a filmmaker."

"Rick  (Linklater)  brings  reality,  honesty and believability to the film,"  explains  Black.  "He  reins  me in, which is important because I'm always  going  10  miles  too  far  over the top. So when I go a little too crazy, he brings me back to reality."

Not  unlike the actor who portrays him, the fiery Dewey Finn is on the verge  of  exploding  throughout  "The  School  of Rock." First, he gives a volatile  performance  with his band, launching into a long guitar solo and stage-diving  into  the  crowd  with no one there to catch him. Next, while masquerading  as  his  roommate,  substitute  teacher  Ned  Schneebly (Mike White),  Dewey  discharges lectures on the wonders of rock and the evils of "The  Man"  to a wide-eyed class of fifth graders. And finally, in the end, he  ignites  his students into giving the performance of their lives at the Battle of the Bands.

about the kids
Once the principal cast members were in place, the real challenge was to fill the classroom with musically talented kids. Producer Scott Rudin, director Richard Linklater, casting director Ilene Starger and music supervisor Randall Poster all shared the same thoughts about authenticity.

"We cast children who could actually play these instruments and sing," explains Starger, who saw several thousand children in cities that included New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle throughout the five-month casting process.

"In  the  end, we struck a great balance, mostly choosing kids who are not  the  classic Hollywood actors," says Poster. "All of them have a fresh sweetness  about  them, and each definitely brings something special to the film."

Two  members  of  "The  School  of  Rock"  band, 11-year-old classical guitarist  Rebecca  Brown  (bass  player  Katie)  and 12-year-old classical pianist  Robert  Tsai  (keyboard player Lawrence), were found through "From the  Top," a Public Radio International program featuring performances from young  classical  musicians.  "From  the  Top,"  which originates from WGBH Boston,    provides    information,   entertainment   and   education   for pre-college-age  musicians,  their  parents  and  teachers, and Rebecca and Robert were real finds.

Being  a musician/singer himself, Jack Black recognised the talent in his  co-stars immediately. "These kids were amazing musicians from the start and they took direction really well," says Black. "I mean, the performances Rick [Linklater] drew from them were really something."

making music
While  the  casting  was under way, music supervisor Randy Poster, who had  worked  with  director Richard Linklater previously on "SubUrbia," set out  to  build  a  musical  team.  The first thing he did was to bring in a ringleader  for the kids -- Jim O'Rourke, who produces and plays with SonicYouth.

"One  of  the  great  advantages of this movie is that we had 10 weeks where  we  basically put the kids in rock-and-roll boot camp," says Poster.

"In  that  way -- both before and during production -- the kids became very comfortable with their instruments and all aspects of the story."

Jack  Black  was  glad  to see Jim O'Rourke on board to help his young costars  prepare  for  their  roles  and  truly have a good time during the entire filmmaking process.

"Jim is a great musician, a good producer, and he even has some albums out  on  his  own,"  observes Black. "He rehearsed with the kids till their chops were really up and their rock licks were nice and shimmy-shammied."

O'Rourke,  who in addition to performing with Sonic Youth has produced for  the  bands Stereo Lab and Wilco, explains that first he needed to find out  what  the  kids could do before he knew exactly what areas each had to work on.

"I  needed to find out what they were used to playing, what style they liked  to  play  in  and  what  their  strengths and weaknesses were," says O'Rourke.  "After I gathered that information, it was my job to make it all blend."

According  to Craig Wedren, who composed the film's instrumental score and  jammed  with  the  kids during numerous band rehearsals, the set truly turned  into  a  music camp and a safe haven for the kids to just rock out.

"It  took me back to when I was 12 years old and in my first band," recalls Wedren.  "It  was a time you could just wail on your guitar or bang on your drums  and  make great music with your friends, and that's what happened on the set with these kids."

Joey  Gaydos  Jr.,  the  lead  guitarist,  remembers  when  they began rehearsals.  "The  first  time  we  actually  played together, we were real sloppy,  you  know, because it was our first time," admits the 12-year-old.

"But when we began really practising, we started to sound pretty good."


"All  the  kids are extremely talented and they really worked together as  a  team" observes director Richard Linklater. "Their experience mirrors the  experience  of  the  kids  in the story. They started out playing in a comfortable  musical  environment, then basically, we just tried to make it fun for them -- just like Dewey Finn did in the film."

While the young band of "The School of Rock" rehearsed, the filmmakers reached  out  to  musicians  and  lyricists  for the key songs. In the end, however,  it  was  Jack  Black and Mike White who wrote a lot of the songs, including several solos that are performed in the classroom.

about the production

Filmed in the New York metropolitan area, "The School of Rock" began production at Wagner College in Staten Island, which provided the gothic architectural exteriors for the Horace Green Elementary School, the interiors of which were shot at a private school on Long Island. The cast and crew then travelled to Franklin Lakes and Rahway, New Jersey. In Rahway, the production shot exterior scenes in front of an old movie palace that draws major musical acts and theatrical productions to the area.

Although the exteriors of the school were primarily filmed at Wagner College, the scenes in the cafeteria, faculty rooms and Rosalie Mullins office were shot during Christmas holiday break at Long Island's prestigious Buckley Country Day School. Founded in 1923, the school relocated in 1955 to the former estate of the Shearson family in Roslyn, Long Island.

Following several months of filming on location, the production settled into the Broadway stages in Queens to film the interiors of the classrooms and the apartment that Dewey shares with Ned and Ned's girlfriend, Patty. Production Designer Jeremy Conway and his team built the interior of the apartment, making it a funky, brick-walled space full of vinyl albums, miscellaneous guitars and a used drum set. Orderly on the side where Ned and Patty live, the apartment definitely has the messy crash-pad look, with a mattress on the floor and take-out food containers strewn everywhere, on Dewey's side.

The film's exciting Battle of the Bands finale brought the production back to Staten Island's St. George Theatre, a magnificent former vaudeville palace and opera house built in 1928. When the movies came into vogue in the early 1930s, a projection booth was built upstairs, and it flourished for a long time as one of the great American, art deco movie palaces -- a perfect place to stage "The School of Rock" winning performance.

All  the  Battle of the Bands performances were enhanced by celebrated lighting designers Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, whose theatrical work on  Broadway has garnered literally dozens of awards, including a Tony they shared  in  1996  for  "Bring  in  'Da  Noise,  Bring  in 'Da Funk" and six additional  Tony awards for Fisher. In addition to lighting all the numbers in  the  Academy  Awardâ-winning musical "Chicago," Fisher and Eisenhauer's studio,  Third  Eye, designs lighting for a myriad of entertainment venues, including film, ballet, opera, television and rock 'n' roll.