“Straight Outta Compton” star O’Shea Jackson, Jr. is in talks to join the cast of Legendary’s “Godzilla: King of Monsters,” TheWrap has learned.
Jackson would join a cast that is headed by Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, and “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown. “Krampus” director Michael Dougherty is attached to the project as writer-director, with Zach Shields as co-writer. Alex Garcia will oversee for Legendary.
“Godzilla: King of Monsters” is a sequel to the 2014 “Godzilla” film starring Bryan Cranston and is part of Legendary’s cinematic universe that also includes the recently released “Kong: Skull Island,” which enjoyed a strong opening in China this past weekend and has accumulated a $392 million global box office cume.
“King of Monsters” will build towards the crossover tentpole “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which will be released in 2020. Both films will be distributed by Warner Bros. as part of a deal that moved distribution of “Skull Island” from Universal Pictures — which currently has a distribution deal with Legendary and distributed Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of the original “King Kong” — to WB in order to make the Godzilla/Kong confrontation possible.
Jackson played his father, legendary rapper Ice Cube, in the hit N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton” in 2015. He will next appear in the dramedy “Ingrid Goes West,” which premiered at Sundance this year and will be released in August.
“Godzilla: King of Monsters” will be released March 22, 2019. Jackson is represented by WME, Cube Vision, and Ziffren Brittenham.