Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Told in the form of a musical documentary, Conner Friel is a musical prodigy at an early age, and he forms a pop rap group dubbed "The Style Boyz", with his childhood friends Lawrence Dunn and Owen Bouchard. They almost instantly gain fame in the music industry, inspiring many of today's musicians. However, after failing to receive credit for writing Conner's guest verse on the Poppy-winning single "Turn Up the Beef", Lawrence leaves.

After the Style Boyz disband, Conner becomes a solo act, taking on the name "Conner4Real", with Owen as his DJ. Lawrence begins farming in Colorado after a failed attempt at going solo. Conner's debut album Thriller, Also rockets to the top of the charts and his fame increases. In 2015, Conner releases his sophomore album Connquest, which receives terrible reviews due to him writing every single song himself as well as using hundreds of different producers rather than Owen's original beats. With sales surprisingly low, Conner's manager Harry suggests having Aquaspin, a manufacturer that makes home appliances, sponsor the tour. The company's appliances begin playing Conner's songs when in use, causing a nationwide power outage that generates a wave of backlash among Conner's fans.

Conner begins his album tour, but the shows do not sell as well as he had hoped. Harry suggests they hire hip-hop artist Hunter the Hungry as an opening act, and the ticket sales begin to rise. Conner starts to add new gimmicks to his act, including a robotic mask for Owen, publicizing his relationship with actress Ashley Wednesday, and a stage trick where he changes costumes in seconds behind a curtain. The trick only works as a result of Conner having to hide his penis behind his legs, but the trick is seemingly botched in Nashville, when Conner is exposed naked (without his penis visible) mid-concert, and becomes the subject of mockery.

Conner's publicist, Paula Klein, suggests he pull another publicity stunt to deflect attention from his humiliation. Conner decides to propose to Ashley on live TV, with a display including a number of trained wolves and a performance by Seal. Seal's vocals agitate the wolves and they break loose, mauling the attendees. Seal fights off a wolf from experience, even saying his facial scar came from wolves. However he too gets mauled seconds later. The backlash against Conner grows, and Ashley breaks up with him and starts dating Seal, who sues Conner for his injuries.

Owen, worried about the declining quality of his friend's music, sets up a meeting between himself, Conner, and Lawrence. The reunion ends poorly when Conner refuses to acknowledge that Lawrence wrote the track that launched his career. Despite Conner's poor reputation, The Tonight Show agrees to book him on an episode. Host Jimmy Fallon suddenly invites Conner to perform the Style Boyz' hit song "Donkey Roll" along with Owen, which is received well by the crowd despite Conner's reluctance.

As the tour progresses, Hunter begins to overshadow Conner, selling more records than him and dragging out his act before Conner's show. At a concert, Hunter announces that he will perform as long as possible, causing Conner to rush to the stage. A brawl ensues when Hunter quietly admits that he orchestrated Conner's wardrobe malfunction. Conner demands that Harry let Hunter go and fires Harry after finding out that he has signed Hunter. Connquest is later knocked off the charts and Aquaspin decides to pull their sponsorship. The remainder of the tour is cancelled, and Owen decides to leave the team when Conner questions his loyalty. After his beloved pet turtle Maximus dies, Conner sinks into a depression and moves back into his mother's house. He begins drinking heavily and starts selling crude horse drawings online.

Paula forces Conner to leave the house and takes him to a club featuring Owen. Owen's music and production are strong, though his singing is subpar. Conner and Owen reconcile and decide to finally make amends with Lawrence. Conner gives Lawrence his Poppy and apologizes, acknowledging Lawrence's contribution to his music. Conner and Owen discover that Lawrence owns a giant marijuana farm and a music studio in his farmhouse. As the three get high and collaborate in Lawrence's studio, Conner receives news from Paula that a six-minute slot has opened for Conner to perform at the Poppy Music Awards as a result of Taylor Swift being arrested for murder, and with encouragement from his friends, he decides to reunite The Style Boyz.

At the Poppys, Hunter humiliates himself after arguing with Mariah Carey on stage and Harry quits as Hunter's manager after being insulted by him. Conner reconciles with Harry and later finds out that the six-minute slot has been shortened to three minutes, forcing him to perform either a Conner4Real song or a Style Boyz song. Conner decides to perform The Style Boyz's new song "Incredible Thoughts" featuring Michael Bolton. The film ends with Conner reflecting on the lessons he has learned and the value of holding onto relationships after reaching stardom, and introduces a new baby turtle named Maximus II, before a wolf from Conner's disastrous proposal attacks him.

Additionally, Edgar Blackmon and James Buckley appear as Eddie and Sponge respectively, members of Conner's entourage who serve as his yes men.[7] Other members of Conner's staff include: Ashley Moore as Sarah, his personal assistant; Bill Hader as Zippy, a roadie; Danny Strong as his perspective manipulator; Will Forte as his bagpipe player; and Justin Timberlake as Tyrus Quash, Conner's chef. Timberlake was uncredited for the role.

Will Arnett, Eric Andre, Mike Birbiglia, and Chelsea Peretti portray CMZ reporters, a parody of TMZ. Kevin Nealon appears as photographer Gary Sikes, and Paul Scheer plays the wolf handler at Conner and Ashley's engagement ceremony. Emma Stone makes an uncredited cameo as Claudia Cantrell, a well-known pop singer who helped kickstart Conner's solo career, and "Weird Al" Yankovic appears as the lead singer of Hammerleg. The wives of Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer all make brief appearances: Joanna Newsom (Samberg's wife) as Zippy's flatline doctor; Marielle Heller (Taccone's wife) as a member of Conner's documentary crew; and Liz Cackowski (Schaffer's wife) as the Poppies stage manager. Judd Apatow voices one of Conner's fans.

Cameos as themselves

Principal photography on the film began on May 14, 2015, announced by Universal Pictures under the working title Conner4real.[8][9]

The movie was advertised on YouTube the month of its release date. On May 10, 2016, Samberg made an appearance on NBC's The Voice in character as Conner4real to perform "I'm So Humble", alongside judge Adam Levine, and give answers to contestants in a farcical Q&A session.[10] Samberg then made a guest appearance on the season finale of Saturday Night Live, on May 21, 2016. Promoted as a new SNL Digital Short, he appeared in character as Conner4real and debuted a song from the movie ("Finest Girl"). Taccone and Schaffer received guest writing credits for the episode.[11] The Lonely Island also released a video "I'm a Weirdo" to their YouTube channel, featuring conner4real rapping on the street.

The film was released in the United States on June 3, 2016, and in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2016 by Universal Pictures. It did not get an international release.[12]

The Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping soundtrack album, performed by the Lonely Island, was released on June 3, 2016, the day of the film's release.[13]

• Blizzard Man - Samberg's SNL sketch about a questionable rapper.

• Official website
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at IMDb
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at Rotten Tomatoes
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at Metacritic
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at Box Office Mojo