Ice Cube cast as Fagin in Oliver Twist musical from Hamilton director

The NWA rapper will co-write and produce the reworking of Charles Dickens' classic novel

Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is being treated to a modern day adaptation starring Ice Cube as Fagin.

The rapper will co-write and produce the project which will serve as the filmmaking debut of Thomas Kail, the Tony Award-winning director of hit Broadway musical Hamilton.

Disney is behind the reworking that The Hollywood Reporter states will include various genres of music including hip-hop.

Dickens' story follows a young orphan who gets caught up with a group of pickpockets in Victorian London. There have been numerous adaptations over the years, including Carol Reed's 1968 Oscar-winner Oliver! starring Ron Moody and Oliver Reed as well as Disney animation Oliver & Company (1988) and Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist in 2005.

Ice Cube shot to fame with NWA, the rap collective at the centre of last year's biopic Straight Outta Compton This won't be the first time he's played a Dickens character following his casting as Ebenezer Scrooge in Humbug, yet another version of A Christmas Carol.

Lin Manuel-Miranda's musical Hamilton - which tells the story of US founding father Anthony Hamilton - will hit London's West End in October 2017.