Those of us hoping Ice Cube would go back to his gang bangin' movie roots might as well pack it in. Back in February we learned that Cube was shopping a "Boyz in the Hood" type flick surrounding the tricked out car culture in South Central Los Angeles. The film would be titled Chrome and Paint, and Cube would be directing and co-writing the script with Eva Vives. It would be Cube's first directing gig since 1998's The Players Club
. Well it looks like he found a buyer, and as Deadline reports, it's likely to cause a few changes. Disney is in talks to finance and distribute the film, once described as "urban" and "gritty", but now with the Mouse House involved that's probably going to change. One of their demands is that it be PG-13, even though it was written as an 'R'. The film was always intended to be a morality play, using "the subculture of tricked out Mercedes, BMW and Low Rider cars to frame a drama about the temptation to place materialism above all else".
Consider the luster totally off this project for me. Cube is in a unique position that he can tell these types of message movies in a way that appeals to an urban audience as well as others. I get that, and the film might still end up being a very good one with plenty to say. So I'm admittedly looking at this from a purely selfish standpoint in that I want to see what kind of R-rated gritty gang flick Cube would make right now. His perspective on that lifestyle has to have changed over the years. But I really don't want to see a Disney'ed up version of Fast and the Furious.
