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Daily News
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Fox Going Back to the Old School
Ice Cube and Futurama's David X. Cohen developing new animated series
focusing on the early days of hip-hop.
Monday, October 25, 2004
By FilmStew Staff Report
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Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
Photo
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Ice Cube the Grandmaster
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Ice Cube and his Cube Vision Prods. are teaming with Futurama co-creator
David X. Cohen on Grandmaster Freak & the Furious 15, a pilot presentation
ordered up by Fox. The animated comedy series is a throwback to the origins
of rap music and early 1980s hip-hop. Cohen created, will write and will executive
produce the series, with Ice Cube and his Cube Vision partner Matt Alvarez also
executive producing.
Set in Englewood, NJ, the series centers on the misadventures of an old school
hip-hop crew under the leadership of Grandmaster Freak, a 17-year-old high school
student whose parents would rather have him hitting the books in order to go
to college rather than following his musical talents. Englewood was one of the
birth places of rap and hip-hop as it was the home city of Sugar Hill Records.
Producers hope to cast voice talent that can also rap, in the hopes having at
least one musical sequence during each episode. It's likely that Ice Cube will
provide a voice, although not that of Grandmaster Freak. No studio is yet attached
to the project.
The Grandmaster project is Cube Vision's first major television deal
and marks the company's first pilot presentation. They had been working on a
drama series for Fox last development season, but that project never made it
to air. The company is also working with State Street on a television version
of Barbershop for Showtime. Cube Vision, which recently signed a deal
with Revolution Studios, has credits that include the Barbershop films,
the Friday films and All About the Benjamins.
Cohen is an Emmy winner for his work on both Futurama and The Simpsons.
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