Crime

Calling 'White Boy Rick' Look-Alikes: Local Film Casting Is May 2

April 22, 2015, 11:48 AM by  Allan Lengel

Calling all "White Boy Rick" look-alikes.

Julie Hinds of the Detroit Free Press reports that filmmakers working on a movie on the life of convicted drug dealer Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe Jr. are hoping they can find a hometown person to play Wershe, who was arrested at age 17 and sentenced in Detroit to life in prison at 18. He's now 45, and still trying to get paroled. 

An open casting call is May 2 from 1-6 p.m. at Michigan Actors Studio, 648 E. Nine Mile Rd. in Ferndale. Actors resembling Wershe as a youth are asked to bring a photo with full name and contact information attached. Auditions will being handled by Pound & Mooney Casting.

The film is a project of Studio 8, the Freep reports. Universal Picture is also developing a movie.

Wershe hopes that fresh attention to his story helps him get parole. He's had former FBI agents and Detroit cops pushing for his parole, but he's also had current and former law enforcement types fighting his release.

It's a bit of crap shoot for him. Wershe doesn't want a movie to portray him as this evil drug dealer, which might impact a future decision by the state parole board.

Last October, he told Deadline  in a phone phone interview from prison: "Listen, if it will get the truth out there,  I'll love it." 

His comments came just days after it was reported that Universal Studios had secured the rights to  a true-crime story about Wershe. The rights are for an article written by journalist Evan Hughes,  "The Trials of White Boy Rick."

"But if  they want to glorify this white kid in the ghetto who sold all these drugs, then I don't want anything to do with it," Wershe said during the interview.

He said the real story is that a task force comprised of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Detroit Police,  lured him into the Detroit drug trade as a young teenager in the 1980s so they could use him as an informant. Then the task force walked away when it was done with him. He was eventually busted at age 17 and sentenced to life without parole. He was later re-sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, but has been denied parole.  


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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