Omar of "The Wire" to Play Ol' Dirty Bastard in Biopic
Whoever's behind this casting ingeniousness deserves a raise. Actor Michael K. Williams—the murderous, drug dealer-robbing, yet oddly sweet, homosexual thug Omar in The Wire and bootlegger Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire—will play the late Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard (born Russell Jones) in a new biopic called Dirty White Boy, EW reports.
As the directorial debut of Joaquín Baca-Asay, the cinematographer on Jay-Z’s "99 Problems" video, Dirty White Boy will center on the chaotic final years of ODB, who, after battling addiction and mental issues much of his life, died of a drug overdose in 2004. It will also chronicle his offbeat friendship with Jared Weisfeld, the eponymous Dirty White Boy. Weisfeld, says EW, was then "a 22-year-old VH1 production assistant who through a lot of hustle (and the occasional lie) talked his way into becoming the rapper’s manager when [ODB] was serving a three-year stint in prison in the early 2000s."
Both Weisfeld, who now works for the literary management and production company Objective Entertainment, and ODB's mother Cherry Jones, are cooperating with the project. And apparently the role of Weisfeld is still unfilled, so, aspiring actors, get to it.
What y'all think of the upcoming ODB biopic? Excited? No word yet on its release, so until then just watch the below video on repeat. RIP ODB.
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