News: Significant Omissions to the "Straight Outta Compton" Script

Straight Outta Compton has proven to be a huge box office and critical hit, however, the film has come under fire for a number of omissions from the screenplay and eventual final cut of the film, namely one infamous real life event — Dr. Dre's physical attack of hip-hop journalist Dee Barnes in 1991.

Apparently a draft of screenwriter Jonathan Herman's script for the film included the assault, however, director F. Gary Gray admitted that it was taken out, along with other scenes, to keep the run time to under three hours. Some of the scenes were shot and some were not.

The Los Angeles Times showcased a breakdown of the scene:

In the scene, the fictional Dre, “eyes glazed, drunk, with an edge of nastiness, contempt” (per noted from the script) spots Barnes at the party and approaches her.

“Saw that [expletive] you did with Cube. Really had you under his spell, huh? Ate up everything he said. Let him diss us. Sell us out.”

“I just let him tell his story,” Barnes’ character retorts, “That’s what I do. It’s my job.”

“I thought we were cool, you and me,” Dre fires back. “But you don’t give a [expletive]. You just wanna laugh at N.W.A, make us all look like fools.”

The conversation escalates, Barnes throws her drink in Dre’s face before he attacks her “flinging her around like a rag-doll, while she screams, cries, begs for him to stop.”

The real life Barnes wrote an essay on the incident for Gawker following the film's lack of reference to the attack.

Other notable real life events not written in or shown in the final cut were Dre being shot four times in the leg, his house catching fire during a wild pool party, and a graphic flashback of his younger brother in the fight that claimed his life.

Gray has stated that the original script was a lengthy 150 pages and the film's original cut was three and a half hours long.

Dr. Dre has addressed the allegations in the past, telling Rolling Stone that he made “[expletive] horrible mistakes” in his life, directly addressing his history of domestic abuse.

"I was young… stupid. I would say all the allegations aren't true — some of them are. Those are some of the things that I would like to take back,” he said. “It was really [messed] up... But I paid for those mistakes, and there's no way in hell that I will ever make another mistake like that again."

Regardless, the film has proven to be an excellent look into at least part of the rise and fall of the iconic N.W.A.

Have a biographical or "based on a true story" script yourself? Submit it to the ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship in hopes of attaining some meetings and introductions to key entertainment executives, producers, and representatives.

Source: The Los Angeles Times