After engaging in a Fist Fight with Charlie Day and going for yet another Ride Along with Kevin Hart, Ice Cube is going to dabble in musicals. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the erstwhile N.W.A rapper is going to put a modern, er, twist on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Ice Cube has signed on to co-write the contemporary take on the classic orphan story, which is chock full of squalor, social criticism, and gruel. He’ll also produce the film with his co-writer Jeff Kwatinetz and Marc Platt, the latter of whom was behind the hit pre-Oz musical Wicked. The musical will be under the Disney Studios banner.
As if that weren’t enough to ensure that the updated version of Dickens’ novel “[crosses] many genres, including hip-hop,” Ice Cube will also be on hand to play Fagin, the leader of a gang of pickpockets. Thomas Kail, fresh off of helming Grease Live!, will direct the new Oliver Twist musical, which already sounds leagues away from Lionel Bart’s 1960 musical Oliver! and its film adaptation. Ice Cube should just steer clear of the procedural route for his musical movie—Fox already called dibs.