How Hollywood Scrambled for the Rick Ross Biopic: 'Like Blow, But With Crack'!

After today's big Rich Ross news, I can't pass up the chance to share a Rick Ross item. As in "Freeway" Rick Ross, the notorious '80s drug lord with ties to Iran-Contra/social networking guru/film producer who has a Nick Cassavetes-penned biopic in the works (not to be confused with Rick Ro$$ the rapper). It's early yet, but with Scarface producer Martin Bregman allegedly interested, the former drug kingpin gave Shadow & Act an update on the project.

Ross and his business partner/attorney/former deputy D.A. Antonio Moore discussed the status of Ross' biopic, written and set to be directed by Cassavetes:

Ross: Let me tell you…I was out of jail one week and I was sitting in the office with Michael Lynton from Sony Pictures, Ari Emanuel from William Morris Endeavor’s office, Jeff Berg, Spencer Baumgarten of CAA and there was another guy who was the president of Universal Pictures at the time but I can’t remember his name…All these guys tried to tell me my movie wasn’t that valuable and I should cut ties with it, let them take it and do it the way they thought it should be done.

Moore: I was at the Jeff Berg meeting myself and what he said was this story is very much “new content” and Hollywood right now is having major problems finding new content that resonates. He also said the script right now, which was written by Nick Cassavetes (screenwriter of Blow, director of Johnny Q and The Notebook), has four nominations. We’ve made contacts with several black actors who we want in the picture, like Mike Epps, but most notably we’ve made a connection with Jamie Foxx. We’re in discussions to get him to play the lead possibly. He’s read the script and talked to Rick about it.

One week out of prison and Hollywood was sniffing around. Of course. "It’s like the film Blow but with crack," Moore explained. (Fun!) "It has narration and it tells the story from three different perspectives."

Ross's Freeway Productions, meanwhile, has already produced its first feature -- the horror pic The Lost Coast Tapes.

More over at Shadow & Act.

Photo via FreewayRick.com.