Alec Guinness, Ron Moody, Clive Revill, George C. Scott, Jonathan Pryce, Richard Dreyfuss, Rowan Atkinson … all actors who have played the character of Fagin over the years in film, television and theatre versions of Oliver Twist. Soon, you will be able to add Ice Cube to that list.
The rapper and actor has signed on to star in a new Disney adaptation of Charles Dickens’ beloved book.
The Ride Along actor has teamed up with Tommy Kail, the Tony Award-winning director of Broadway smash Hamilton, for a modern take on the literary classic.
Veteran movie producers Marc Platt and Jeff Kwatinetz will produce alongside Ice Cube, who is attached to play thief mentor Fagin – the role portrayed by Ron Moody in the 1968 Carol Reed movie musical Oliver!
Ice Cube and Kwatinetz are also developing the script for the new film, which will feature a hip-hop soundtrack.
Director Kail collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda on the rapper-composer’s musicals In the Heights and Hamilton.
Author Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist was first published as a serial in 1837, telling the story of a young orphan boy who leaves child labour behind to befriend a gang of London pickpockets, helmed by Fagin.
This new version will be the second Disney reimagining of the tale after 1988’s animated movie Oliver and Company, featuring a cartoon cat in the title role. Oliver! has also become a big hit on the stage, with countless Broadway and West End adaptations over the years.
Musician Ice Cube, who appeared in Ride Along 2 and Barbershop: A Fresh Cut this year, is also lined up to play Ebenezer Scrooge in the upcoming Humbug, a contemporary retelling of Dickens’ classic story A Christmas Carol, which tells of a wealthy man who is shown a path to redemption by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
