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When you hear the name "Jack Black," you don't exactly think "big-name star." A sort of heir apparent to John Belushi, he actually shares a number of commonalities with the star of such classics as Animal House and The Blues Brothers. Both are comedians with both outstanding with and an amazing talent for physical comedy, both are talented musical performers, and both have an odd, sensitive, attractive quality about them that translates very well to roles as leading men.

And so it is that Jack Black, who has previously found "lead performer level" success in the underrated comedy Shallow Hall, emerges as the star of the upcoming Richard Linklater film The School of Rock. For those who are unfamiliar with Linklater's work, he was the director of the Academy Award-nominated animated film Waking Life, along with lesser-known but cultishly revered movies like Slacker, Dazed and Confused and Before Sunrise. Adding to this extemely quirky mix is screenwriter Mike White, who broke out in Hollywood by cowriting Dead Man on Campus, but has since made a bit of a name for himself in indie circles with the screenplays for Chuck and Buck and The Good Girl.

Black's character in The School of Rock is a rock guitarist/vocalist named Dewey who has been fired from his band, so he takes a job as a substitute fifth grade teacher at a private school. Before long, his rebellious attitude, music and various hijinks encourage the students to explore sides of themselves that the school would find to be undesirable. It's all a bit of a sham, though, as Dewey's surreptitious goal is to recruit some of the school's musical prodigies, whose talent would help Dewey to win a battle of the bands and therefore solve his money problems and re-establish his career.

With the talent involved in this project, it promises to be a very intriguing little comedy. Reports that Black's Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass may assist by contributing some of the music for the film is just the icing on the cake, indicating that not only the script itself but also the accompanying soundtrack should be wickedly funny. (Kim Hollis/BOP)

Vital statistics for The School of Rock Main Cast Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman Supporting Cast Mike White, Joey Gaydos, Miranda Cosgrove, Kevin Clark, Robert Tsai, Rebecca Brown, Maryam Hussan, Caitlin Hale, Aleisha Allen Director Richard Linklater Screenwriter Mike White Distributor Paramount Trailer Click Here for Trailer Official Site http://www.schoolofrockmovie.com/ Rating PG-13 Running Time 108 minutes Screen Count 2,614 Talent in red has entry in The Big Picture

Comparison films for The School of Rock
Title	Date	Opening	Adjusted Opening	Screens	PSA	Adj PSA	Total BO	Adjusted Total	Mult
Shallow Hal	11/9/01	23.28	24.84	2771	8401.00	8624.0	70.83	75.59	3.03
Orange County	1/11/02	15.05	15.64	2317	6497.00	6497.0	41.03	42.65	2.67
Drumline	12/13/02	12.61	13.11	1836	6868.00	6868.0	56.39	58.62	4.47
Saving Silverman	2/9/01	7.41	7.90	2467	3004.00	3083.8	19.35	20.65	2.61
High Fidelity	3/31/00	6.43	7.19	1183	5435.00	5848.4	27.04	30.24	4.21