Pharrell has unveiled the trailer for his upcoming Lego-themed biopic Piece By Piece.
The two-and-a-half-minute trailer, which dropped on Thursday (June 6), opens with a Lego version of Skateboard P speaking with director Morgan Neville and saying: “You know what what would be cool is if we told my story with Lego pieces.”
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The director gives a surprised chuckle in response, before Pharrell assures him: “Just be open.”
From there, the video briefly chronicles the Virginia native’s journey from a wide-eyed kid with a passion for music to becoming one of the industry’s premiere hitmakers.
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Along the way, it shows him getting his start under the tutelage of Teddy Riley, blending rap and rock as one-third of N.E.R.D and producing hits for the likes of JAY-Z, Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake alongside Neptunes production partner Chad Hugo — all of whom voice themselves in the film.
That’s just the tip of the star-studded supporting cast, with cameos also coming from Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes, Pusha T, Timbaland, N.O.R.E., Gwen Stefani and others.
The trailer is largely soundtracked by familiar hits like Pharrell’s “Happy,” Snoop’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and N.E.R.D’s “Rockstar,” but Pharrell — as he is known to do with movie projects — has also cooked up new music.
“There are two new compositions. 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,” he told Variety.
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“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.”
As for the unorthodox decision to tell his life story through animated Lego characters, Pharrell said: “We wanted it to be a medium for anyone that just wanted to hear a good, aspirational, inspiring story told vividly, in a way that felt like it could apply to them personally.
“That they’d realize that at seven years old or 77 years old, they could wake up tomorrow and go tell their story, piece by piece.”
Neville added: “What we made is not like any other movie. 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.”
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Piece By Piece is set to hit theaters on October 11.
