Entertainment mogul Damon Dash is on his film grind once again with three projects in the works for the near future.
The co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, who stepped up his cinema hustle as the executive producer of 2004’s Kevin Bacon drama The Woodsman and the current Cuba Gooding Jr. film Shadowboxer, will add to his resume with upcoming films set in the underbelly of New York.
The first, with Universal Pictures and Tribeca Prods partners Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, is a drama based on the life of Larry Davis. At 19, Davis shot and wounded six NYC police officers and escaped despite being shot in the head. He was on the lam for 17 days before deciding to turn himself in on the promise that the FBI would investigate local police corruption.
"In urban culture, Larry Davis is something of a legend," Dash told Daily Variety.
The entrepreneur is also developing a fact-based film about a female fight club in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where troubled women get their scrap on for money in a makeshift ring in somebody’s basement.
Dash’s third project is based on the life story of mobster Joe Stassi, a go-between of Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano. Dash is in talks with producer Henry Winterstern of First Look Studios to use the documentary of Stassi made by filmmakers Marc Levin and Richard Stratton as the basis for a feature.
"When I first got to Hollywood while focusing on music and the other businesses, I got a taste of independent films and built up a decent body of work," Dash told Variety. "I'd like to hit my stride now with movies that have social relevance to the urban and New York experience."
The co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, who stepped up his cinema hustle as the executive producer of 2004’s Kevin Bacon drama The Woodsman and the current Cuba Gooding Jr. film Shadowboxer, will add to his resume with upcoming films set in the underbelly of New York.
The first, with Universal Pictures and Tribeca Prods partners Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, is a drama based on the life of Larry Davis. At 19, Davis shot and wounded six NYC police officers and escaped despite being shot in the head. He was on the lam for 17 days before deciding to turn himself in on the promise that the FBI would investigate local police corruption.
"In urban culture, Larry Davis is something of a legend," Dash told Daily Variety.
The entrepreneur is also developing a fact-based film about a female fight club in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where troubled women get their scrap on for money in a makeshift ring in somebody’s basement.
Dash’s third project is based on the life story of mobster Joe Stassi, a go-between of Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano. Dash is in talks with producer Henry Winterstern of First Look Studios to use the documentary of Stassi made by filmmakers Marc Levin and Richard Stratton as the basis for a feature.
"When I first got to Hollywood while focusing on music and the other businesses, I got a taste of independent films and built up a decent body of work," Dash told Variety. "I'd like to hit my stride now with movies that have social relevance to the urban and New York experience."
