- Dave Franco will play Vanilla Ice in a biographical film about the rapper.
- The actor spoke publicly about the role for the first time for Insider.
- He said he hopes the movie will be like “The Disaster Artist,” the movie about “The Room” he made with his brother James, in which he will celebrate the artist.
- Franco said he has spoken to Vanilla Ice and “can’t help but think about the rabbit holes I’m going to go down to prepare for the role.”
- Read our profile on Dave Franco.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
Dave Franco is gearing up for the most prominent role of his career: 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice.
Franco spoke publicly about the role for the first time in a profile story with Insider for his upcoming directorial debut, “The Rental” (available on demand and in selected theaters on Friday).
“We’ve been in development for a while, but we’re getting closer and closer to pre-production,” Franco said of the Vanilla Ice movie.
News of the role came out in early 2019 when a list of a project titled “To the Extreme” (which is also the title of Vanilla Ice’s hit 1990 album) appeared in the trade publication Production Weekly.
The list featured the following slogan: “From dropping out of high school selling cars in Dallas to having the first hip-hop single to top the Billboard charts with ‘Ice Ice Baby,’ a young Vanilla Ice struggles with stardom, the extortion attempts and selling while making music history. “
“To the Extreme” is written by screenwriters Chris Goodwin and Phillip Van.
Franco said he imagines the project will be like “The Disaster Artist,” starring him and his brother James Franco, and celebrated the making of Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room,” an ultra-low-budget drama considered one of the worst movies. ever done but has an incredibly loyal cult following for that.
“With that movie, people expected us to do a broad comedy where we made fun of Tommy Wiseau, but the more real we played it, the more fun and sincere it was – that’s the tone we want for this one too,” Franco said.
Vanilla ice cream.
Reed saxon
Vanilla Ice, whose real name is Rob Van Winkle, was certainly more successful than Wiseau. His album “To the Extreme”, which along with “Ice Ice Baby” also included a version of “Play that Funky Music”, spent 16 weeks on the Billboard 200 and sold 15 million copies worldwide.
Ice became an overnight sensation and would briefly date Madonna and star in his own movie, “Cool as Ice” from 1991. But his stardom quickly faded and led to him being considered a one-hit wonder. . Since then it has become a fixture in the world of reality shows and is still performing before its small collection of loyal fans.
Franco said that while he was trapped at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, he received phone calls with Vanilla Ice about the project.
“Rob is such a sweet and smart guy and he has been a great help in the process of getting all the right details and catching up on information that the public doesn’t know,” Franco said. “Just talking to him I can’t help but think of the rabbit holes I’m going to go down to prepare for the role.”
Franco said there is currently no project start date due to the pandemic.
