Deadline reports that according to sources, Warner Bros is rebooting its 1991 neo-noir gangster film New Jack City and that multi-hyphenate Snowfall actor and filmmaker Malcolm M. Mays is set to write the script.
Another one: #NewJackCity reboot in development at Warner Bros. https://t.co/w9hvmYR9DM pic.twitter.com/c44EXGrxRq
— Shadow and Act (@shadowandact) September 24, 2019
The original film was directed by Mario Van Peebles and written by Thomas Lee Wright, and included a star-studded cast including Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Flavor Flav, Judd Nelson, and Peebles.
Snipes played New York City drug lord Nino Brown during the 1980s crack epidemic. Ice-T portrayed Scotty Appleton, a detective who goes undercover in Nino’s gang, the Cash Money Brothers, to bring down the drug lord for taking the life of his mother.
Rock played the infamous role of “Pookie” Benny Robinson, a former stick-up kid who becomes homeless and poor after Appleton shoots him in the ankle. Pookie later becomes a crack addict and eventually a police informant and infiltrates the Cash Money Brothers.
Mays played Kevin Hamilton for two seasons on FX’s Snowfall. He also starred in Antoine Fuqua’s boxing movie Southpaw and the Cuba Gooding Jr.-Dennis Haysbert film Life of a King. On Friday, Mays can be seen starring opposite Anna Kendrick in IFC’s The Day Shall Come from See-Saw Films.
Mays has several projects at different stages of development, including the Flint film starring T.I., for which he is directing and producing.
He recently wrote for Warner Bros Ferguson, an adaptation of the book Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown, by Lezley McSpadden with Lyah Beth LeFlore.
New Jack City, made for an estimated $8 million back in the day, grossed close to $48M at the domestic box office.
No word on who will direct the project but Bill Gerber (A Star Is Born) is producing along with the pic’s original producer Doug McHenry.
