John Singleton Trying to Make N.W.A. Biopic

Director John Singleton returns Friday, following a six-year layoff, with "Abduction," starring Taylor Lautner. We're a little underwhelmed by the trailer and Lautner both, but Singleton caught our attention recently while doing press for the film, with talk of another project.

โ€œI canโ€™t talk about it too prematurely about the stuff Iโ€™m doing because nothingโ€™s come to fruition yet, but Cube and I are talking about doing the N.W.A. story,โ€ Singleton told The Playlist. โ€œThe script is really, really good, and so weโ€™re just figuring it out. New Line really wants to make it.โ€

The title of the proposed film would naturally be "Straight Outta Compton," the band's monster anthem from their similarly titled debut album. The record is a masterpiece, a seminal piece of American culture. But its wider success was thanks largely to the outrage expressed by the L.A.P.D., F.B.I. and U.S. Senate--those three august bodies did more to promote the band than a million publicists.

It'd be great if this band's story could be told, as it touches on just about everything: the American Dream, poverty, violence, race, AIDS, censorship, drugs, law enforcement, government... And it ends, incredibly, with Ice Cube being one of the most family-friendly filmmakers in Hollywood and a popular pitchman for corporate America.

As badly as we want to see this, we ain't gonna hold our breath.

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