RZA Says Ol' Dirty Bastard Biopic Is Gaining Traction

Straight Outta Compton's box office success and critical success, both hard to come by simultaneously in films, has opened doors for two long awaited music biopics. One of them is the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me, finally in production after years, which just announced who's been cast to play Faith Evans. The other is a biopic about Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard first said to have been written in 2011 according to RZA who tells Rolling Stone plans for the biopic are moving forward. 

According to RZA the biopic was written by a cousin of ODB and his, Rayshawn. "I think it's a great idea, and there has been talk about it. There are a few wheels in motion with one done by our first cousin Rayshawn; he was the young guy there watching everything that happened," RZA told Rolling Stone adding that he's seen a teaser for film calling it "the best thing that I've seen so far." "Him and ODB's wife have been talking and he has a pretty interesting script. I just saw a 12-minute teaser that he shot about a year ago and it felt pretty fucking cool," said RZA. "I watched it and was like, 'Wow, you may have something here.' He has the best thing that I've seen so far."

RZA, who has directed before, with two more films on the way, reportedly turned down the chance to direct the biopic after Rayshawn asked him. RZA did say it would be "honor" to do it and that he'd still be involved in the project:

"From the age of six, me and [ODB] used to push shopping carts around grocery stores and try to get nickels. There are very few people who know the real him as much as me. So it would be something that I would be honored to do, but there's a lot of moving parts to it. If those moving parts don't go in sync with me, I'll still be on it just to see it happen, talk to whoever's doing it and give them my interviews or whatever they need to help make this story as great as possible."

On the significance of Straight Outta Compton RZA said,

"Straight Outta Compton showed that hip-hop is a marketplace in cinema. I always believed that the art we was creating was audio-visual, and it was headed towards visual-audio. And that's why you see me in this world—my own heart drove me here—and I'm glad that a movie like that breaks out and does such numbers that it's almost undeniable. It showed that with the proper team and marketing, many of us out here who grew up on this music would love to see the inside makings of those stories."

Details about casting for the biopic and its production have not been revealed.

[via COMPLEX]