OK, Ice Cube is going to be playing Fagin in Disney's musical version of Oliver Twist. Allow that information to sink in for a moment, and then continue.
Obviously, Oliver Twist was originally a Charles Dickens novel and told the tale of Oliver the orphan. Oliver gets away from his workhouse fate when he's sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker.
He then escapes his undertaking fate, ups and moves to London and is discovered by the Artful Dodger and Fagin, joining Fagin's gang of juvenile London pickpockets.
The story was adapted by Disney once before in 1988 with Oliver and Company, though it's been on the stage, the big screen and TV countless times.
Disney Studios is teaming up with Thomas Kail, the Tony-winning director of Hamilton and Grease Live!, while Ice Cube will be producing the modern musical (which will apparently feature hip hop) via his Cube Vision banner, The Hollywood Reporter writes.
Marc Platt and Jeff Kwatinetz are also producing, with Cube and Kwatinetz writing the treatment.
In the other modern update, Twist is a woman in her 20s - not a plucky young orphan boy - who forms a band of outsiders to solve crimes that the police are ignoring.
'Consider Yourself' warned.
