In a shocking and controversial bit of casting against type, Snoop Dogg has just landed the role of notorious San Francisco pimp Fillmore Slim. He'll take that leap into the unknown when The Legend of Fillmore Slim goes before cameras next year.
Slim - real name Clarence Sims - is actually an accomplished blues musician who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Etta James, BB King and Dinah Washington in his early career in the 1950s. In the 60s and 70s, however, while he never gave up the guitar, he was also well known as The West Coast Godfather of the Game, and The Pope of Pimping, cruising Fillmore Street in a sharkskin suit and a Cadillac. He estimates that he "ran" about 8000 hookers over his entire reign. Arrested in 1980 (for having a forged passport) he spent five years in clink, and re-emerged with the blues once again. He's released several albums since.
Joking aside then, it's a role that seems tailor-made for Snoop, particularly when you see footage of the real Slim and note the uncanny resemblance (one prophetic wag in the comments on that link describes Slim as Snoop Snr.) And while the likes of Soul Plane and Starsky And Hutch haven't exactly given him the chance to flex his acting muscles, he did put in some good work in Training Day.
Slim's daughter Rebecca has been putting The Legend together, with the help of executive producer Shelly Liebowitz and co-producers Alan Ames and Wayne Anderson. Carole Parker is writing the screenplay, and actor Hawthorne James will direct.
“This film will span decades,” says Ames, “from Slim’s emergence as a musician, to his fascination with the fast life, through his years of incarceration and his redemption." Ah, it's going to be redemptive. Pre-production starts in December for a March 2012 shoot.
The real Fillmore Slim, now 77, is currently on tour.