A name we haven’t mentioned on this blog, likely since his last feature directorial effort, 2010’s Our Family Wedding (which starred starring Forest Whitaker, Lance Gross, America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, and others), writer/director Rick Famuyiwa is prepping to get behind the camera again, teaming up with one of his Our Family Wedding stars, Forest Whitaker (who will produce) for a drama feature titled Dope.

Whitaker’s Significant Productions (along with partner Nina Yang Bongiovi), as well as Pharrell Williams are all producing the film, which Famuyiwa has written and will direct, with a summer 2014 production start date eyed, in Los Angeles.

Dope’s synopsis reads:

Malcolm Adekanbi is an anomaly, a “geek living in the bottoms,” the drug-infested, gang-run ghetto part of Inglewood. A victim of circumstance, but with admirable ambition, Malcolm gets caught in the crossfires of a drug buy gone bad. Using his wits and considerable smarts, he manages to take a dicey situation and make it work in his favor.

No casting announcements have been made yet.

Famuyiwa, who made his mark with the 1999 dramedy, The Wood (although it wasn’t his first film), also helmed 2002’s Brown Sugar, which came at the tail-end of what felt like a black rom-com boom at the time. He also co-wrote the screenplay for Kasi Lemmons’ Talk To Me in 2007.

Whitaker continues to flex his producer muscles, after wearing that hat for last year’s critical darling Fruitvale Station, as well as the thriller Repentance, which he also starred in.