Pharrell is flipping the biopic concept on its head with his film Piece by Piece, which hits theaters on October 11. The acclaimed artist told his life story through Lego animation with the help of director Morgan Neville.
“What we made is not like any other movie,” Pharrell told Variety. “I don’t know what a comp for it would be. People can try and label it. It’s just its own film. It’s mind-blowing, in a way, the freedom that we were able to put together in the film, but that only works if you’re channeling your subject.”
The Neptunes producer was reluctant to agree to a biopic when his agent approached him with the idea years ago. Pharrell changed his mind when he was given the creative freedom to do whatever he wanted.
“Everyone was doing [biopics] at the time, and I was like, ‘Hell no,'” he said. “I never want to do what everybody else is doing. Everybody’s taking the Lincoln Tunnel, then I want to take a plane … But when he finally said the magic words, ‘You can do it any way you want,’ I knew deep down inside that I wanted to do it through Lego.”
The upcoming film features Lego versions of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Timbaland and more.
“Everybody comes through so well. It’s so captivating when you see it,” Pharrell said. “I enjoy stop-motion animation. But that’s not what this is.”
Pharrell also created two new tracks for the movie.
“There are two new compositions,” he said. “One is made for a specific scene. And the other one is made for a specific scene but tells the story; it’s like my thesis — [which is] that God is the greatest, that awareness, just understanding that that’s the story.
“The rest of the music is music that Chad [Hugo] and I made together and songs also that I made by myself, and that we produced and wrote for other people. It’s one big fun musical documentary biopic.”