Rebel Wilson is stepping into the music industry.
The Australian actress and singer has signed a deal with Warner Music and will have her very own, exceptionally personalized label — Rebellionaire — Deadline reports.
“Take the ‘b’ out of billionaire and replace it with an ‘r’ for Rebel,” she told the publication of her partnership with the recording group, whom was set on partnering after hearing songs from Wilson’s feature directorial debut “The Deb” — a comedy/musical set in Australia.
The first release from Rebellionaire will be “The Deb”’s soundtrack, out late 2024 along with the film’s debut.
Wilson was first introduced to “The Deb” over three years ago via a scholarship program she supports at Sydney’s Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP).
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“Basically, one young person wins it and then I mentor them for a year,” the actress explained. “And as part of it, they have to pitch a show and write the show and hopefully finish it by the end of the year.”
The first project to come from the program was an Australian musical called Fan Girls, which Wilson, 43, noted had an extremely successful outcome.
“And then I was like, ‘Oh, hang on, I think I’ve got something here,” she said of an idea that came to mind, leading to new contracts that were set in place with ATYP, granting Wilson the right to dig into productions that came from her scholarship program, especially those worthy of greater development for stage, TV or movies.
Plus, Wilson was itching for a reason “to go back to Australia and create some Australian movies because I hadn’t shot a movie there for 12 years,” she said, speaking of 2011’s “A Few Best Men”, which she shot down under with the late Olivia Newton-John and Elizabeth Debicki.
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According to Deadline, “‘The Deb’ follows three girls whose lives are changed when one of them gets booted out of her posh city school and is sent to muck out with farm girls in a bush town far from the city limits.”
“Even though it’s very uniquely Australian, it could have real impact overseas,” Wilson said of the film, written by Hannah Reilly.
The writer and producer connected Reilly with pop composer, Meg Washington, to which they wrote many numbers for a stage production that “was a deliberate development step for the film and a way to test the musical,” performed at ATYP’s Rebel Theatre, named after the actress.
Wilson noted that when “Elvis” director, Baz Luhrmann, was making his 1992 debut feature “Strictly Ballroom,” he set out on a similar path. His film was initially created in 1984 as a short play set in the world of ballroom dancing.
The “Pitch Perfect” star monitored every step of the stage production — which became a huge hit — then had Reilly and Washington write two new songs for the film adaptation — “Pretty Strong” and “F**k My Life”, which “has about 100 f**k words in it,” Wilson said, joking that’s “probably why the movie can never be bought by Disney.”
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Wilson teased that “The Deb”‘s songs will have a huge impact on the generation of TikTokers. Furthermore, she teased that some of the film’s musical numbers have “hip-hop elements, another has music that’s a bit Disney princess-like, and there’s a ballad or two.”
“I couldn’t believe the talent when I got to Australia,” said film producer, Amanda Ghost, who met cast members Natalie Abbott, Charlotte MacInnes — who was in the original stage production — and Stevie Jean at auditions. “I’ve never come across three girls with voices with this much talent that blend so well.”
Later this summer, Wilson will travel to Sydney to begin pre-production, followed by shooting, set for October and November in the city and rural New South Wales.
“I’ve had the bush life,” Wilson laughed over the film’s latter shooting location, which is away from the city life. “I was raised in the western suburbs of Sydney … living in a house where you had snakes and bush rats in the back yard. I know that life!”
