Dave Franco may be prepping for the wide release of his already well-received directorial debut The Rental but he’s not slowing down on work one bit as the 35-year-old is set to portray infamous ’90s rapper Vanilla Ice in a new biopic entitled To The Extreme, according to The Wrap.
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First announced in 2019, the film centers on the rise of its central subject, real name Robert Van Winkle, from his time as a high school dropout selling cars in Dallas to becoming the first hip-hop artist to have a single top the Billboard charts with 1990’s “Ice Ice Baby.” The film will also chronicle Ice’s struggles with stardom, extortion attempts and criticisms of selling out.
Written by Chris Goodwin and Phillip Van, Franco said in an interview with Insider that the tone of the film is being envisioned as akin to the 2017 acclaimed biographical dramedy The Disaster Artist, focused on Tommy Wiseau’s notorious cult classic The Room. Franco co-starred in Disaster alongside his brother James Franco, who also acted as producer and director on the hit.
“We have been in development for a while but we are inching closer and closer to preproduction,” Franco said. “With that movie, people expected us to make a broad comedy where we make fun of Tommy Wiseau, but the more real we played it, the funnier and heartfelt it was — that’s the tone we want for this one as well.“
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With production still shut down across the country, Franco confirmed that the project hasn’t set a production start date just yet and that there is no director currently attached to the film, but expressed his excitement at diving into the film and role.
“Rob is such a sweet and intelligent guy and he’s been super helpful in the process of getting all the details correct and making us privy to information the public doesn’t know,” Franco said. “Just talking to him I can’t help but think about the rabbit holes I’m going to go down to get ready for the role.”
(Photo Credits: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic and Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images)
