HBO may have ordered its blistering rock ‘n’ roll drama Vinyl to an early grave – that is, despite initially unveiling plans for a season 2 – but fans of ’70s music can take solace in today’s first trailer for The Get Down, Baz Luhrmann’s Netflix series that chronicles the spirited rise of a group of South Bronx teenagers who flew in the face of the city’s crumbling economy to help put hip-hop on the map.
Comprising 13 one-hour episodes in total, The Get Down is packed to the rafters with relatively big-name stars, most notable of which are Jimmy Smits (Sons Of Anarchy), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Yolonda Ross (Meadowland) and After Earth star Jaden Smith.
What’s more, Luhrmann and the Powers That Be at Netflix have assembled a flock of promising up-and-comers, too, including Justice Smith, Herizen Guardiola, Skylan Brooks, T.J. Brown Jr, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mamoudou Athie, Yolonda Ross, and Zabryna Guevara.
Here’s an overview, per Netflix:
The Get Down focuses on 1970s New York — broken down and beaten up, violent, cash strapped — dying. Consigned to rubble, a rag-tag crew of South Bronx teenagers are nothings and nobodies with no one to shelter them — except each other, armed only with verbal games, improvised dance steps, some magic markers and spray cans. From Bronx tenements, to the SoHo art scene; from CBGB to Studio 54 and even the glass towers of the just-built World Trade Center, The Get Down is a mythic saga of how New York at the brink of bankruptcy gave birth to hip-hop, punk and disco — as told through the lives and music of the South Bronx kids who changed the city and the world…forever.
Baz Luhrmann will introduce Netflix subscribers to the Big Apple like never before when The Get Down makes its bow on the streaming service come August 12.
