HBO Musical: According to Variety, HBO will start production in late summer on its first musical, an original period tuner starring OutKast's Andre 3000 and Big Boi.

The musical was written and will mark the feature directing debut of Bryan Barber, who helmed the band's memorable videos for "Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move."

Broadway vet Hinton Battle will choreograph the pic, which has a budget in the $15 million range.

The pic is a full-blown singing and dancing musical that will inject contemporary music into a period tale. Some of the songs will come from OutKast's Grammy winning album "Speakerboxx/The Love Below," but most will be original tunes written by OutKast that will go onto a future album.

While HBO generally makes its pictures directly for the network, the OutKast project will be a theatrical release first.