Ol’ Dirty Bastard Biopic Will Star Michael K. Williams
Michael K. Williams, the actor who played the iconic Omar Little on The Wire, has signed on to portray Ol’ Dirty Bastard in a film about the final years of the late Wu-Tang Clan rapper. Williams, though best known for The Wire, is a regular on Boardwalk Empire and appeared in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road.
The film, titled Dirty White Boy, will be directed by Joaquin Baca-Asay, who previously served as the cinematographer for We Own the Night and Roger Dodger and made the video for Jay-Z’s hit “99 Problems.”
The story will focus on the friendship between the Wu-Tang emcee and Jarred Weisfeld, a 22-year-old production assistant at VH1 who talked his way into becoming his manager while the rapper served a three-year jail term in the early 2000s. The Weisfeld role has not yet been cast.
Williams, 45, is a full decade older than Ol’ Dirty Bastard was at the time of his death in 2004.