Trivia for
The School of Rock (2003) More at IMDb Pro »

• The big posters in Dewey's bedroom are of the The Sex Pistols, The Who, and New York City rock band Evil Jake. They were included because set designers photographed lead singer Mike Jacobs' apartment as research on how struggling musicians actually live, and Dewey's apartment is partially modeled on Mike's.
  
  
• Stunt men were used to catch Jack Black at the end for the stage dive (just in case).
  
  
• Stephen Frears was originally approached to direct.
  
  

• Writer Mike White is actually not a fan of classic rock. The basis of the movie is actually used so Jack Black could perform his own favorite music
  
  
• The idea for the movie came when writer Mike White moved into an apartment next to Jack Black. White would often find Jack Black running naked through the halls or blasting much of the music featured in the movie at full volume.
  
  
• The script originally called for Jack Black and Joan Cusack's characters to fall in love following their outing to the bar.
  
  
• In the photo that Dewey holds up of his and Ned's old band, the other person is Richard Linklater, the director.
  
  
• Ned's old band, Maggotdeath is a reference to the metal band, Megadeth.
  
  
• All parents' cars are Volvos.
  
  
• Dewey's guitar is a Gibson SG Standard.
  
  
• The finger point and nod that Jack Black teaches Zack is actually a move that Angus Young of AC/DC performs in concerts.
  
  
• The rock band Led Zeppelin are notoriously hesitant to allow their music to be licensed for commercial purposes. Knowing this, Richard Linklater filmed a plea by actor Jack Black in front of 1,000 screaming fans, imploring the band to let the production use the "Immigrant Song" in the movie. The plea worked and the filmed request is included on the DVD.
  
  
• The original screenplay was called "The School of Rock", and it was later shortened to "School of Rock". However, the opening credits had already been designed and partially shown in theaters with the word "The" in the title. Director Linklater decided not to digitally remove the extra word from the credits.
  
  
• Early in filming, an insecure Robert Tsai approached director Linklater and tried to talk him out of letting him be in the film because he felt he wasn't right for the part. Linklater responded that it was his very insecurity that made him exactly right for the part, and kept him in.
  
  
• The riff of the Darkness song "Black Shuck" is used in the film, but "Growing On Me" appears on the soundtrack. This is because Black Shuck contains the line "Black Shuck, that dog don't give a fuck" repeatedly.
  
  
• In the film, when the "groupies" approach Dewey at his desk to unveil the band's name they find him crooning a strange song and strumming his guitar. The song he is singing is the theme to the little known Internet comedy series "Computerman" (2003), starring Jack Black.
  
  
• When asked for his opinion about testing from the other teachers, Jack Black dodges the question with song lyrics including the line "Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be". One of the teachers asks if it is from a song, but he denies it. They are in fact from the song, "Greatest Love of All".
  
  
• The shirt that Freddy is wearing in the end is from Green Day's 2001 "Warning" tour.
  
  
• Although the children in the film are supposed to all be the same age, the child actors ranged in age from Kevin Alexander Clark, who was nearly 15 by the time of the film's release, to Miranda Cosgrove, who has just turned 10 by the time of the film's release.
  
  
• Dewey's nickname for Freddy the drummer, "Spazzy McGee", is a reference to an early draft of the character in which Freddy is a spastic sufferer of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and can be seen taking Ritalin during class.
  
  
• Miranda Cosgrove, who plays Summer in the movie, can sing. She took about a 45-minute "bad singing" lesson to sing horrible for the song "Memory" when 'Jack Black''s character was looking for backup singers.
  
  
• As Dewey heads into the Battle of The Bands contest towards the end of the film he walks through a corridor and past two musicians wearing shades, leaning against a wall. The two are members of The Mooney Suzuki, the band who provide extra instrumentation on the soundtrack.
  
  
• All the kids really play their instruments, and the backup singers are real vocalists. Jack Black also played a bit of guitar in the movie (for example, when he is teaching "Smoke on the water", "Iron man" and other songs to Zach), but he didn't do the guitar solos.
  
  
• A DVD bonus feature reveals that the movie was originally going to be a musical.
  
  
• In the scene where the class are at the tryouts for the Battle of the Bands contest, Summer and Dewey are on the stage talking to the director. In this scene, when Jack Black's character gets frustrated, he throws a chair. According to the commentary on the DVD, this wasn't part of the script and Miranda Cosgrove didn't know this was going to happen. You can see her react by jumping when the chair is thrown. This is a completely real reaction.
  
  
• The piece the children play in the band hall is Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez".
  
  
• When Dewey asks Marta to prove she can sing, she sings "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" from Annie. She in fact, starred in Annie on Broadway when she was younger.
  
  

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