"Omar Little" to Play Ol' Dirty Bastard in Dirty White Boy
Biographical films of rappers run the gamut from being borderline-spectacular (Get Rich or Die Tryin') to disappointing (Notorious). But a film about the Wu Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard is thus far moving in a positive - and surreal - direction.
Michael K. Williams - shown in the above photo portraying Omar Little on The Wire - is slated to star as Wu Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard in an upcoming biographical film.
Entertainment Weekly reported last week that casting began on a film focusing on Ol' Dirty Bastard's unlikely partnership with a 22-year-old production assistant. O.D.B. - whose real name was Russell Jones - died of a drug overdose in 2004.
And the article goes onto say that Michael K. Williams - who rocketed to fame playing Omar Little on the seminal HBO series The Wire - was tabbed to play O.D.B. in the film.
Williams' portrayal of Omar Little - a stick-up man with a peculiar moral compass - was one of the primary reasons for The Wire's success during the 2000s. Omar even won the endorsement from Barack Obama, who called Omar his favorite character on the show.
Williams has won acclaim more recently for his role on Boardwalk Empire, a HBO series that the documents the rollicking normalcy of the Prohibition era.
While there are living and deceased rappers who could be suitable subjects for a film, it's without dispute that O.D.B.'s life was twisted enough for the big screen treatment. Although he wasn't as technically sound as other members of the Staten Island rap cooperative, O.D.B.'s erratic and fantastical rhymes, zany antics and troubled personal life captivated the popular music world throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
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