Saturday, August 16, 2014

Paul Giamatti Lands Major "Straight Outta Compton" Role

Paul Giamatti  has joined the upcoming N.W.A biopic "Straight Outta Compton" says THR.


N.W.A., short for Ni--az Wit Attitudes, was an influential hip hop group from Compton during the late 80's and considered one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap scene.

Giamatti will play Jerry Heller, who was already a major figure in the music biz who represented acts ranging form Journey ELO and REO Speedwagon He co-founded the label Ruthless Records with Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) and both signed and managed N.W.A. and oversaw their rise. When the band broke up, Heller was pegged as the cause of the split

Aldis Hodge will play MC Ren and Neil Brown, Jr. will play DJ Yella Corey Hawkins plays Dr. Dre and Ice Cube's son O'Shea Jackson Jr. will play his father in the film.

 Jonathan Herman wrote the latest draft of the script--Scribes Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus and Matt Alvarez have all been linked to the project as scripters in the past.

"The Italian Job" helmer F. Gary Gray is going to direct. Gray beat out the likes of John Singleton George Tillman Jr. and Elgin James for the job.

Universal took the film out of turnaround from New Line Cinema. Production is underway. The studio has set an August 14, 2015 release date for the film.
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