Disney Picking Up Ice Cube's 'Chrome and Paint' (Updated)

Continuing to rethink what the definition of a Disney movie, the studio is picking up Chrome and Paint, a gritty car culture project from Ice Cube.

Cube will direct and produce with his CubeVision partner Matt Alvarez and is also co-writing the script with Eva Vives, who co-wrote the 2002 Latino drama Raising Victor Vargas.   Chrome and Paint is actually the name of a song from Cube’s 2006 album Laugh Now, Cry Later and contains lyrics that wouldn’t get through the front gate of the Burban-based  studio.   Cube envisioned the film project, set in South Central LA, as a hardcore R-rated movie where young people die in drive-bys, but now that Disney will be its home, the grit factor will be toned down.   The story, in getting the Disney flavor, will be turned into a father-son story centering around a car. Paint will focus on a teen who is left fatherless and begins to rebuild a car that belonged to his father. Cube will play a friend of the father¹s who helps. The process of remaking the car helps the two heal each other.   Since taking the reins of the studio, Rich Ross and Sean Bailey have tried to broaden the scope of the traditional Disney movie even as they cut down the number of movies the studio makes.   One move has been bringing in filmmakers that normally wouldn’t have set up projects at the studio, such as David Fincher. Add Cube to the list.