It was in late 2012 when Nick Cannon shared the following on Twitter:
Shout out to everyone watching Drumline right now. EXCLUSIVE NEWS: I’m producing Drumline 2 and the TV show for VH1. Stay tuned!!; INCREDIBLE got several shows coming out in 2013. U GON’ GET THIS WORK!!!; Wait to you guys hear the storyline for Drumline 2! #hardtokeepsecrets it’s been over a decade since the first one. #classic; SPOILER ALERT: I’m not the main character. I’m too damn old! New class! I’m getting my behind the camera on! But I will be in the movie.
Translation: a sequel to 2002’s Drumline is coming; Cannon isn’t going to star in it (it’ll feature a new class of actors/characters), but he’ll apparently direct it, and will have a role in the movie; he’s clearly very excited about it; and finally, he’ll be behind (or in front of) several new shows in 2013.
Less than 2 years later, VH1 announced that it had given the green light to Drumline: A New Beat – a sequel to the 2002 film, which, as Cannon revealed, will follow a new class of characters, set in a fictional New Orleans university.
The sequel will tell the tale of a Brooklynite named Dani Bolton, who comes from an upper class background, and who decides to attend the fictional New Orleans university that’s the backdrop for the story, where she hopes to join, and shake-up, their once prominent drumline. Getting in her way are, upperclassmen, a new romance with a band-mate, her chief rival, and the school’s crosstown rivals.
No casting has been announced yet. Although Cannon will appear in the film, but not in a starring role.
The first Drumline (a fish-out-of-water comedy about a talented street drummer from Harlem who enrolls in a Southern university) was a success for Fox, grossing close to $60 million on a $20 million budget; it was directed by Charles Stone III from a script penned by Tina Gordon Chism (who made her directorial debut with We The Peeples last year), and starred Cannon, as well as Zoe Saldana.
Stone will not be returning to direct this sequel; Instead, VH1 has tapped Billie Woodruff to direct Drumline 2: A New Beat, from a script penned by Karen Gist.
Also worth noting, the film is being packaged as a possible back-door pilot to a potential Drumline series on the network.
I’d expect Drumline: A New Beat (the movie/backdoor pilot) to premiere during the 2014/2015 TV season.
