A&E Network Greenlights “Definitive” Documentary On Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Hip-Hop Icon And Founding Member Of Wu-Tang Clan

deadline.com:

A&E Network has signed on for a feature documentary about Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the late founding member of pioneering hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.The film, under the working title Biography: Ol’ Dirty Bastard, will be co-directed by Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, Citizen Ashe) and Pollard’s son, editor Jason Pollard (Get Me Roger Stone, Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James).

A&E promises a “definitive” look at the performer born Russell Jones, produced with the cooperation of ODB’s estate and featuring “a never-before-seen personal archive shot by his wife, Icelene Jones, and access to his closest friends and family.”“This culture-defining special,” A&E says, “humanizes ODB as a man, a father, and a husband like never before… providing an intimate picture of ODB’s life and reflecting on his lasting impact on music and culture.”The film is being produced by Pulse Films, with Four Screens and the Ol’ Dirty Bastard estate, and will center on ODB’s solo career, “from his first album release in 1995 until his untimely passing from a drug overdose in 2004,” according to a release. “A celebration of his artistry and legacy, the documentary is an unflinching look at the complexities of his life including addiction, adultery, fame, mental illness, sudden wealth, race and criminal justice, and will ask the question of just how complicit the media and music industry were in hastening his demise.”“I am thrilled to tell the full story of my husband,” Icelene Jones said in a statement. “With this documentary the world will learn about the son, the husband, the father, and the artist.

I’m proud of the team that we built, including Pulse, my producing partners Nicole Beckett and Messiah Jacobs at Four Screens, and our directing team, the