French filmmaker Yann Demange, who made his feature debut with the Northern Ireland-set drama ’71,’ will take the director’s chair for the true-crime drama ‘White Boy Rick,’ with Matthew McConaughey reportedly in negotiations to star.
Penned by Logan and Noah Miller, with the current polish coming from Steve Kloves, the drama centres on Richard Wershe Jr., a teenager in 1980s Detroit who became an undercover informant for the local and federal law enforcement agencies, then established himself as a prolific cocaine trafficker.
Deadline hears that McConaughey would take on the role of Werhse’s father, “a blue-collar factory worker trying to keep his family together as the automotive industry collapses around him in Detroit.”
Demange and his producers are currently casting the role of Wershe, with the plan of having the film in production in March.