Hip-hop star Missy Elliot’s life is so compelling, that Universal Pictures is making a movie out of it. She of course, will star as herself. Quite a stretch.

The movie has no title yet, but Missy Elliot: The Movie has a nice, clean, banal ring to it. It’s still in the really early development phases, but Universal’s announcement says Robert De Niro is producing it through his production company Tribeca Films, which instantly gives the project more than the usual amount of rapper movie credibility.

It’ll be interesting to see where they go with this one. Will this be a female version of Eminem’s 8-Mile, or are we in for an all girl version of Get Rich, or Die Tryin? I’m hoping for the former. Scratch that, I’m actually hoping the project falls into the crack ‘o doom and never gets made. But with the power of De Niro behind it, that seems unlikely.

34-year-old Missy was born in Portland, Virginia and started out as a member of the all-female singing group Sista. Since then she’s released six solo albums and made a name for herself producing for artists like Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson.