Ice Cube’s next project: Straight Outta Old Compton Street. Disney Studios is putting together a modern musical version of Charles Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist, and the 22 Jump Street actor is on board to play pickpocketer-in-chief Fagin.
Oliver Twist, the little orphan boy who went back for seconds, is no stranger to the big screen, with more than a dozen adaptations produced over the past century, including, most famously, the 1968 musical Oliver!. Disney have already adapted the book once before, in 1988’s animation Oliver & Company, which reimagined Oliver as a wise-cracking kitten in New York City.
Given Cube’s rap pedigree with N.W.A., this new modern take will unsurprisingly have something of a hip-hop slant to it – helped, no doubt, with the involvement of Thomas Kail, the award-winning director behind hit hip-hop-slanted musical Hamilton.
Cube, who is also producing, is writing the treatment for the film alongside producer Jeff Kwatinetz. The actor-producer-rapper can next be seen in Fist Fight, and will be back for a third Ride Along movie.