First a quick recap…
Just over 2years ago, Nick Cassavetes (son of indie film trailblazer John Cassavetes) signed on to direct a biopic about notorious 1980s drug dealer Rick Ross (not the rapper).
The film would reportedly explore Ross’s ingenious and complex scheme of
the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles during the early 80s – the
height of his success – moving 100 kilograms of cocaine daily, which was
distributed across the country – product that he claims was supplied by
Nicaraguan rebels/Contras.
Naturally, we can expect some mention of the Iran-Contra affair of the late 1980s.
“My brother was a mercenary. He worked in Central America training the Contras, so in a way the story is personal to me… The
fact that our government may have been complicit in destroying an
entire community of people makes the story personal for everyone,” Cassavetes said at the time.
And further… “if I had to compare this movie to another that’s been made in terms of a feeling, a point of view, maybe ‘Traffic’,” of course referring to Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning 2000 film that explored the illegal drug trade from several different POVs.
Ross said the film would focus mostly on his adult life, though not including the 20 years he spent behind bars.
“We become addicted to the power, the money, the
manipulation, the whole lifestyle, the whole drug culture… And you are
going to get to see this in the movie, how a guy goes from being a
novice to being a drug expert,” Ross said.
At the time of that last post, exactly 1 year ago, March 5, 2012, no actors had signed on
to star in the film, though Ross said he had talked directly to Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Ryan Gosling and Jamie Foxx about starring in and/or producing the movie.
Fast-forward to two days ago, March 3, 2013, when the below video popped up on YouTube, featuring Ross and Nick Cannon talking briefly about the project, revealing that Cannon will star in the movie, as Rick Ross.
As far as I can tell, Nick Cassevetes is still involved in the project – at least as a writer. But the video doesn’t reveal anything else, like whether financing has been secured, who else might be involved, when production might start, etc…
We’ve been tracking this for a few years now, so let’s see if this actually goes anywhere with Cannon attached.
Here’s the video:
