Masked singer
If there was a problem, yo, Dave Franco will solve it. Especially if that problem was needing someone to play Vanilla Ice in a biopic.
Franco will star in To the Extreme, a film based on the life of the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper that landed on the 2018 Black List of the most-liked unproduced screenplays circulating in Hollywood. Per the Black List, To the Extreme, written by Chris Goodwin and Phillip Van, follows Vanilla Ice as he goes “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,'” and “struggles with stardom, extortion attempts, and selling out as he makes music history.”
Franco spoke publicly about the project for the first time in an interview with Insider, saying the film is “inching closer and closer to preproduction.” He also compared the biopic to The Disaster Artist, the 2017 film directed by his brother James about the making of the cult-favorite “worst movie ever made,” 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,” Franco said.
He added that he has been in touch with Ice, whose real name is Rob Van Winkle, about the 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.” (Please let one of those rabbit holes be home improvement.)
Franco’s directorial debut, The Rental, will hit select drive-ins, theaters, and VOD on Friday. No release date for To the Extreme has been announced, but until then, feel free to keep checking out the hook while Ice’s DJ revolves it.
Related content:
