Corey Hawkins has been cast as Dr. Dre in the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” it was announced Wednesday by Universal, which will release the film on Aug. 14, 2015 — the date just vacated by the next “Bourne” movie.
Ice Cube‘s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., will play Ice Cube, as TheWrap first reported, while Jason Mitchell will play Eazy-E.
Hawkins beat out numerous candidates for the coveted role of Dr. Dre, including Marcus Callender, who was tipped for the role earlier this week by one publication that jumped the gun with an erroneous report. He previously appeared in “Iron Man 3,” “Non-Stop” and Orlando Bloom‘s recent “Romeo and Juliet” movie.
Mitchell is a New Orleans-based actor who won the role of Eazy-E with an impressive screen test. He previously appeared alongside Mark Wahlberg in both Universal’s “Contraband” and the indie “Broken City.”
In the mid-1980s, the streets of Compton, California, were some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation. Following the meteoric rise and fall of N.W.A., “Straight Outta Compton” tells the astonishing story of how these young men revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the hood and ignited a cultural war.
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F. Gary Gray (“Friday”) is directing the drama, which will be produced by original N.W.A. members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, who are joined by fellow producers Matt Alvarez and Tomica Woods-Wright. Will Packer serves as executive producer of the film alongside Gray.
Jackson Jr. is represented by Ziffren Brittenham, while Hawkins is repped by ICM Partners and Mitchell is repped by Talent Connexion.