Universal has added Aaron Paul to the Snoop Dogg biopic Snoop as music mogul Jimmy Iovine, with Giovanni Ribisi set to play the late-'90s Death Row defense attorney, per Deadline. The film, which casts up-and-comer Jonathan Daviss as Snoop, is due August 6, 2027.
In the Snoop biopic, the Snoop part is the least interesting role. Iovine gets the hero arc, the man whose Interscope distribution deal with Death Row "helped bring Snoop's early work into the mainstream." The biopic's thesis is that the artist needed a gatekeeper, and the gatekeeper is played by the man who played a chemist. The title role goes to Jonathan Daviss, described by Deadline as an up-and-comer: the subject of the movie is now a role played by an actor whose biggest credit is playing a guy who played a guy.
Snoop and the president of Death Row Pictures are producing the film under the label's overall deal with NBCUniversal, announced last April. The first project under that deal is a biopic of the man whose name is on the label. The brand now owns the copyright to the biography.
Ribisi's role is David Kenner, the celebrity criminal defense attorney who repped Death Row. The late-'90s part of the movie is not about the records. It is about the lawyers. When a biopic needs the defense attorney as a lead, that is the story it is telling.
Release date is August 6, 2027. Plenty of runway for the cast list to keep growing and the "based on a true story" disclaimer to keep shrinking.
YOUR TURN: Who is the real star of a biopic where the subject is played by an up-and-comer, the man who plays the savior or the man who got saved?
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