'Beastie Boys Story' Documentary Release Date Is Delayed Due to Coronavirus

The Spike Jonze-directed doc will hit IMAX theaters on April 2.

Update: As of Tuesday (March 17), the doc’s release date has been postponed to a later date, TBD. “Please stay safe out there and stay tuned for more info,” the group tweeted.

The Beastie Boys are in full effect in the first official trailer for the upcoming Beastie Boys Story documentary, directed by their longtime pal and collaborator Spike Jonze.

The nearly three-minute preview opens with some classic glimpses of B-Boys videos and live performances, before turning to early days footage of the group — including then-drummer and later Luscious Jackson member Kate Schellenbach behind the kid — with Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) and Mike D (Michael Diamond) explaining that back in their 1980s punk scene everyone wanted to be a rapper.

“But we were mediocre at best,” admits Horovitz in footage from the recent speaking tour the two mounted in support of the Beastie Boys Book. As it to prove it, they kick to film of Ad-Rock awkwardly reading his rhymes from a piece of paper. Nevertheless, they blew up. “We went from being famous in a 14 block radius to being on tour with Madonna and Rick Rubin,” Diamond says.

Things got so crazy, so fast, Diamond says they quickly burned out and didn’t even recognize the party animals they’d become on stage. The tone then gets mellow, as the duo — third member Adam Yauch (MCA) died in 2012 of cancer — describe the long process of finding their creative voice again, crediting Yauch with helping them find a more serene, focused vibe.

Watch the trailer for Beastie Boys Story below.

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