Dave Franco is set to play Vanilla Ice in a biopic about the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper.

In a wide-ranging interview with Insider, Franco elaborated on the news of his casting and how he sees the film playing out.

“We have been in development for a while but we are inching closer and closer to preproduction,” Franco said of the film, the news of which was quietly revealed last year. He compared the project favorably to The Disaster Artist, the 2017 movie about filmmaker Tommy Wiseau that starred Franco and his brother James. (Wiseau directed and starred in the 2003 cult classic The Room. In The Disaster Artist, James Franco portrayed Wiseau while Dave played co-star Greg Sestero, who wrote a book of the same name about his experience working on the movie.)

“With that movie, people expected us to make a broad comedy where we make fun of Tommy Wiseau, but the more real we played it, the funnier and heartfelt it was — that’s the tone we want for this one as well,” Franco added.

The logline of the film, which was announced in Production Weekly is as follows: “From a high school dropout selling cars in Dallas to having the first hip-hop single to top the Billboard charts with ‘Ice Ice Baby,’ a young Vanilla Ice struggles with stardom, extortion attempts, and selling out as he makes music history.”

The filming is in flux due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Franco says that he has been in touch with Vanilla Ice about the role.

Vanilla Ice was recently booked to perform a show in Austin, but it ultimately got pushed due to external pressure and the virus’ rapid spread in Texas.