Dave Franco to play young Vanilla Ice in new biopic movie 'To the Extreme'
Dave Franco's next acting gig? Portraying a young Vanilla Ice in the upcoming movie "To the Extreme."
Franco, 35, spilled the beans during an interview with Insider while discussing his directorial debut on another movie, "The Rental."
"We have been in development for a while but we are inching closer and closer to preproduction," the actor dished, confirming the '90s rap sensation will be the focus of a new biopic.
Franco attests that, should the project follow the right formula and be handled with respect, it'll be just as successful as the Oscar-nominated "The Disaster Artist," a 2017 film he starred in alongside his older brother, James Franco, about the making of the 2003 film "The Room."
"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," the younger Franco brother noted.
While COVID-19 has production shut down for the moment, the "Now You See Me" star says he's been using his time getting to know Vanilla Ice -- whose real name is Rob Van Winkle -- as a person.
"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," he 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."
"To the Extreme," named after Vanilla Ice's 1990 album of the same name, has a script written by Chris Goodwin and Phillip Van that garnered attention when it was included on the 2018 edition of The Black List, a yearly list of unproduced screenplays voted as favorites among Hollywood tastemakers.
The logline for the movie reads as follows: "From a high school dropout selling used cars in Dallas to having the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts with Ice Ice Baby, a young Vanilla Ice struggles with stardom, extortion attempts, and selling out as he makes music history."
