Hulu’s High Fidelity adaptation will once again reimagine Nick Hornby’s classic novel of music and heartbreak: where the 2000 film starring John Cusack transplanted the aesthetic snobbery to Chicago, the new series from Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka sets the story in contemporary (and gentrified) Brooklyn. There are several other significant updates, including casting Zoë Kravitz as Rob, the record store owner who’s made rankings a way of life.
The series debuts February 14 on Hulu, but as the former center of the action, Chicago will host an early screening of the first two episodes. In case you need convincing, here are the top five reasons you should enter for a chance to attend:
1. Zoë Kravitz, who makes for a captivating new lead.
2. The Chicago Humanities Festival and The A.V. Club are giving away five pairs of tickets for the event.
3. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, recently of Dolemite Is My Name, also stars in the show, and will be part of a Q&A at the CHF event.
4. Bragging rights: the Chicago premiere will be held one day before the New York premiere.
5. Did we mention it’s free?
To enter to win one pair of tickets, email us at [email protected] with the subject line “High Fidelity Chicago premiere” and your first and last name in the body of the email by 1 p.m. CT on Friday, January 24. Please also let us know if you need accessible accommodations. We’ll pick a winner that afternoon, and inform them by email.
Tickets are also available for purchase at the Chicago Humanities Festival event page.
9 Comments
I’m sooooo damn eager for this show I could plots! I adore the book. I adore the movie. There’s 0.0% problems with re-casting the lead and/or location. That wasn’t necessary for any part of the story.
the last time i watched high fidelity i realized that john cusak was out of his god damned mind and any adult would/should have kicked his fucking ass. hopefully this version’s protagonist has their head removed from their ass at some point.
Kinda’ fun that they cast Zoë Kravitz considering the fact that her mom was in the original movie. I like her a lot and the original was pretty seminal for me, so I hope this is good.
“Is that Peter fucking Frampton?”
“How does an average guy like me become the number one lover-man in his particular postal district?”
So is this going to be a period piece? As someone who actually lived this life (to a much less romanticized degree) I can tell you that record store culture today consists mainly of really old men who reek of cigarettes and still want to talk about the Beatles to ANYONE along with the occasional college kid looking for a piece of vinyl that he/she can leave sitting out in their living room to hopefully impress a date.When the film itself came out it was already an artifact because record stores were dying hard at that time and even the book seemed to have been based on 20 year old memories. I can’t imagine where they think they can go with this show. Yeah, there are a handful of “hip” boutique record stores around but they are boring as hell.
As someone who frequents record stores to this day (and will probably run to one this afternoon), nothing you said strikes me as true.
So the character who was portrayed as an average, slightly nerdy white guy in the film is now being portrayed as a hip black woman. Have the producers of this actually read the novel?
I’m not against remakes, but High Fidelity is close to a perfect book, and it was close to a perfect movie. Good luck.