'New Jack City' Reboot In The Works At Warner Bros.

There's going to be a new New Jack City. Warner Bros. is developing a New Jack City reboot based on the 1991 neo-noir gangster film directed by Mario Van Peebles and starring Ice-T and Judd Nelson as two police officers trying to bring down a drug lord played by Wesley Snipes in the midst of the 1980s crack epidemic. Warner Bros. has tapped Snowfall actor and filmmaker Malcolm M. Mays to pen the reboot.

Deadline broke the news that Warner Bros. is developing a New Jack City reboot with actor and filmmaker Malcolm M. Mays writing the script. Mays is a musician-turned-actor who currently stars in the FX drama Snowfall which, fittingly, is about the beginnings of the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles in the '80s.

Mays has previously written and directed one feature film, a 2015 musical titled Covers. However, according to Deadline, he recently wrote Ferguson for Warner Bros., an adaptation of the book Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy and Love of My Son Michael Brown by Lezley McSpadden with Lyah Beth LeFlore. Mays is also set to direct and produce the feature film Flint, based on current Flint water crisis.

The 1991 New Jack City was directed by Mario Van Peebles and featured an all-star cast that included Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Chris Rock, Flavor Flav, Allen Payne, Judd Nelson, and Van Peebles. The film, made for just $8 million, was considered a box office success after it pulled in a $48 million domestic box office gross.

Here is the synopsis for the original New Jack City:

Drug tycoon Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) and his minions, known collectively as the Cash Money Brothers, have rapidly risen to the top of the New York City narcotics trade. Under Nino's heartless leadership, the drug operation has grown into a multimillion-dollar empire. Scotty (Ice-T) and Nick (Judd Nelson), two police officers who know their way around the streets of Harlem, aim to bring Nino and his cohorts down. To do so, though, they'll have to play by Nino's rules and go undercover.

No director or cast is yet attached to New Jack City, but Bill Gerber (A Star Is Born) is producing along with the original film's producer Doug McHenry. Here's the trailer for the original: