A new documentary about rapper legend Eminem is headed for a limited run on the big screen.
AMC Theatres has come aboard to distribute Stans in the U.S., and has committed to playing the doc in more than 135 of its domestic locations beginning Aug. 7 and ending Aug. 10. Overseas, Trafalgar Releasing will release the doc at the same time in more than 1,600 theaters across 50 markets.
The pact follows in the wake of AMC directly distributing Taylor Swift’s concert pic The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé.
The Eminem-produced doc (trailer, below) opened the inaugural London edition of the SXSW festival earlier this year, and is inspired by the artist’s 2000 iconic song “Stan,” about an obsessive, unstable fan who takes his admiration for the rapper too far.
In London, director Steven Leckart described how he flipped the music documentary format on its head. Stans film follows not just the musician’s artistic trajectory but that of his most loyal superfans, with the doc “offering an entertaining and vibrant look at the modern nature of fandom and how social media has irrevocably changed the relationship between artists and their audience.” (The term “Stan” was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017).
Leckart said after the premiere during a Q&A: “I was raised on hip-hop in the ’80s and ’90s, and I grew up on MTV. So I witnessed [Eminem’s] rise’s first hand and I was a fan, but I think I just kept coming back to the song ‘Stan’ and really thinking about how unconventional it was and still is.”
He continued: “I just saw an opportunity to make an unconventional doc … We’ve seen a glut of docs that are just so straightforward and standard. And so this is a beautiful opportunity to do something different.”
Other producers include Paul Rosenberg, Stuart Parr, Antoine Fuqua, Tony DiSanto, David Schiff with DIGA Studios in association with Shady Films, Fuqua Films, Interscope Films, and MTV Entertainment Studios. Bruce Gillmer, Amanda Culkowski and Michael Maniaci are Executive Producers for MTV Entertainment Studios.
Stans will be available on Paramount+ internationally later this year. Stans: The Official Soundtrack, which will feature previously unreleased tracks, is already available for pre-order.