‘Beastie Boys Story’ Coming To Apple TV+

Apple announced that new documentary Beastie Boys Story — written by Beastie Boys members Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and directed by legendary filmmaker Spike Jonze — will stream on AppleTV+ on April 24. The film will also see a select IMAX release on April 3.

The film, based on the memoir Beastie Boys Book, tells an intimate story about the groundbreaking group while the premiere coincides with the 26th anniversary of the release of Beatie Boys’ 1994 album Ill Communication. The doc also reunites Mike D and Ad-Rock with longtime friend and collaborator Spike Jonze, who directed the video for Ill Communication’s genre-bending hit single, “Sabotage.”

“There are some friends you have lunch with so many times over the years, you know their order. Spike is one of those friends,” Diamond and Horovitz said in a statement. “And even when you don’t recognize anything on the menu, he comes up with something good for the whole table. Like when we wondered what to do when our book comes out… then Spike placed his order: You will put on a show for the children.”

“I owe Beastie Boys a lot,” Jonze added. “One time, they pulled me out of a burning ship, and another time they helped me cheat on my college exam to get into Florida State. So, it was a real privilege to get to reunite with them and help them tell their story.”

But the film is perhaps best summed up by someone known simply as, Larry:

This is the eighth time I’ve rewritten this thing, the filmmakers kept telling me I was doing it wrong but I’m really feeling this one. Here’s what the film is: MikeDiamond and Adam Horovitz of Beastie Boys tell you an intimate, personal story of their band, and their 40 years of friendship together. From the 1980s New York City punk scene, to Fight For Your Right (to Party) and becoming the first hip-hop artists to make a #1 record (Licensed to Ill), through their evolution, which took them to Sabotage, Intergalactic and beyond. Created with their old friend, their former grandfather and collaborator, filmmaker Spike Jonze, the film seamlessly mixes a live stage show and documentary to create a new format, a live documentary. Does that make sense? It’ll make more sense when you see the trailer that the filmmakers haven’t finished editing yet, despite constant badgering. But anyways, I’m not mad. In this film that was shot at Kings Theater in Brooklyn, Mike D and Adrock discuss their evolution as musicians, artists and people, and a whole bunch of other crazy sh!t. Their co-conspirator, musician, activist, inventor, discredited astrophysics professor and my favorite beastie boy, Adam Yauch, couldn’t be there that night because he passed away in 2012. But even though he’s not there, his spirit is very much felt onstage through Mike and Adam and the force of nature that was Yauch, their band, and their friendship.