Matthew McConaughey set to star in gangster drama, 'White Boy Rick'

Image from Entertainment Weekly

By Darian Scalamoni

            Ever since Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar for his role as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club, he has risen up the ranks as now a superstar status as an actor. Since the Oscar winning turn, he’s also done films with directors like Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan but today he signed on to do a project that sounds different and unique. According to Deadline, McConaughey is set to star in White Boy Rick from director Yann Demange (’71).

            White Boy Rick follows Richard Wershe Jr., who was the only white boy gangster/drug kingpin within an African-American dominated 80s Detroit ghetto. Not only that, but he was working for law enforcement as an informant at age 14 but then got too caught up within the drugs before being jailed only a few years later.

            Obviously, the Oscar-winning actor is not playing a 14-year old but he is playing Wershe’s father, a blue-collar factory worker who is trying to keep his family together and keep his son out of trouble. The producers are currently casting the lead role of Wershe Jr.

            McConaughey will be seen in the upcoming drama, Gold directed by Stephen Gaghan and his performance looks stellar and could lead to another Oscar nomination. In addition to that, he’s also set to play the Man in Black in Stephen King’s big screen adaptation of The Dark Tower.