O’Shea Jackson Jr. has been set to star in an untitled movie about the life of the late Major League Baseball pitcher Dock Ellis.
“Hacksaw Ridge” producer David Permut, Jeff Kwatinetz and Ice Cube are producing from a script by Joey Poach. Jackson is the son of Ice Cube and portrayed him in “Straight Outta Compton.”
Variety first reported in November that Permut had acquired Joey Poach’s spec script “Dock” through his Permut Presentations company and brought on board Dock Ellis’ son, Dock Ellis III, as a consultant.
Ellis played in the major leagues for 12 years, nine with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and was an outspoken advocate for African-American players, continuing Jackie Robinson’s fight for racial equality in Major League Baseball. He gained notoriety after he retired by disclosing that he had pitched a no-hitter in 1970 while high on LSD.
Ellis played on World Series champion teams in 1971 with the Pirates and in 1976 with the New York Yankees. He retired in 1979 and subsequently admitted that he had never pitched a game sober and ultimately sought treatment for his alcohol and drug addiction. He then dedicated the rest of his life to counseling those suffering from substance abuse problems specializing in counseling professional athletes before dying of a liver ailment in 2008 at the age of 63.
The project is the first developed under the partnership that Cube announced in January through his Cube Vision production company with Kelvin Wu’s AID Partners, a Hong Kong media investment company.
Jackson Jr. is repped by WME, CubeVision and Ziffren Brittenham. Poach is repped by Kaplan / Perrone Entertainment and Hirsch Wallerstein. Permut is repped by Neil Sacker at Skadden Arps.