Dave Franco Will Portray Vanilla Ice In An Upcoming Biopic

Previous to today, if you had asked me to predict which Franco brother would make the news for spitting about haters and chumps through the filter of some truly unrestrained hubris, I would have guessed that James Franco was talking about his #MeToo allegations again. But in a twist I didn’t see coming, we’re talking about his younger brother Dave Franco confirming the news that he will play Vanilla Ice in an upcoming biopic. I know he’s way too old by now, but still – Jim Carrey was robbed!

It was rumored way back in January 2019 that Dave would play the man less formally known as Robert Van Winkle in a movie called To The Extreme, named after Vanilla Ice’s first album. Over a year and a half later, Dave revealed during an interview with Insider that he will be rocking the mic like a vandal, while outfitted in some of the tackiest clothing the 1990s had to offer. Dave spoke a bit about the project, the start of which was put on hold, due to the coronavirus. And basically, it’s not going to be the Vanilla Ice version of Ray or Walk The Line.

“We have been in development for a while but we are inching closer and closer to pre-production.” Franco said if the project is done right, it will very much be like The Disaster Artist. “With that movie, people expected us to make a broad comedy where we make fun of Tommy Wiseau, but the more real we played it, the funnier and heartfelt it was – that’s the tone we want for this one as well,” Franco said.

The Disaster Artist, while extremely entertaining, was kind of sidelined by allegations of misconduct against Dave’s brother James. Like, everyone – including James Franco himself – thought James Franco was going to get an Academy Award nomination for playing Tommy Wiseau. And he didn’t, which might have been because Academy voters just didn’t understand what the hell was going on there (understandable). But maybe Dave will have better luck. Maybe Dave will get a nomination for playing the winner of the 1992 Razzie Worst New Star, Vanilla Ice. Vanilla won for Cool as Ice, a truly awful film/absolutely breathtaking vanity project. But Dave hasn’t been watching Cool as Ice on repeat every day of quarantine. No, instead his acting research has involved making calls to Vanilla.

“Rob is such a sweet and intelligent guy and he’s been super helpful in the process of getting all the details correct and making us privy to information the public doesn’t know,” Franco said. “Just talking to him I can’t help but think about the rabbit holes I’m going to go down to get ready for the role.”

Hmmm, I wonder what kind of secret, insider information Vanilla Ice has been revealing about his past to Dave? I want to believe he whispered, “Dave, don’t tell anyone, but they weren’t real turtles.” At the very least, I hope he gave Dave an eyebrow grooming lesson. I know Dave hasn’t even begun to think about production on To The Extreme, but he better start practicing on his brows. It’s going to take a lot of work to reduce all that volume.

Pics: Wenn.com/FayesVision