Making a biopic about Queen and Freddie Mercury makes a lot of sense. That band and the catalog of songs are iconic. The same goes for David Bowie, Elton John, and a number of the other musical legends that have gotten the biopic treatment over the last few years. But the same can’t be said about Vanilla Ice, the ‘90s-era rapper that had one or two hits and quickly became a punchline before his career came to a premature end. Regardless, that isn’t stopping Dave Franco from bringing the musical artist’s story to life in a new film.
According to Insider, Dave Franco is attached to star as Vanilla Ice in a biopic tentatively titled “To the Extreme.” The title of the film references the massive album that Vanilla Ice released decades ago that sold more than 15 million copies and spent months topping the Billboard charts. And while the idea of a Vanilla Ice movie may be surprising, Franco is getting closer and closer to bringing it to life.
“We have been in development for a while but we are inching closer and closer to preproduction,” Franco said about the film.
While not too much is known about the film, as of yet, the script is written by Chris Goodwin and Phillip Van. However, what Franco wants everyone to know is the tone the film is aiming for, bringing up another film he starred in, “The Disaster Project,” which was directed by his brother, James Franco.
“With that movie, people expected us to make a broad comedy where we make fun of Tommy Wiseau, but the more real we played it, the funnier and heartfelt it was — that’s the tone we want for this one as well,” the actor said.
And much like “The Disaster Artist,” the new Vanilla Ice biopic is being developed with the help of the film’s subject. Vanilla Ice, aka Rob Van Winkle, has been assisting Franco and the others involved to make sure the film is as true as possible.
“Rob is such a sweet and intelligent guy and he’s been super helpful in the process of getting all the details correct and making us privy to information the public doesn’t know,” Franco said. “Just talking to him I can’t help but think about the rabbit holes I’m going to go down to get ready for the role.”
Of course, there’s no release date set for the Vanilla Ice biopic. But we’re pretty psyched to see what Franco can bring to the table with this unique story.
