During his NWA days, Ice Cube was, shall we say, not circumspect about his views on the LA police force. We knew his opinions vis-a-vis the law enforcement group. But like Ice-T in New Jack City, it looks like Cube will be crossing the thin blue line to play a cop in Rampart, co-starring with Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster in Oren Moverman's film of James Elroy's script.
While he'll be playing a muthafucka in a blue uniform with the authority to kill a minority, you can see the appeal, since Rampart is based on a real-life scandal involving corruption within the LAPD in the 1990s. And that's corruption like bank robbery and drug dealing. Not, like, stealing the LAPD stationery. Cube's role is the good cop, investigating dirty cop Harrelson.
Only a couple of weeks ago Rampart was still just a mooted project, with nobody officially signed. Deadline's story this morning suggests that it's now a properly going concern, officially reuniting the Messenger team of Harrelson, Foster and Moverman, and going before the cameras in the summer.