Academy Award-nominated actor Paul Giamatti has been added to star in "Straight Outta Compton," a new biopic about the West Coast rap group N.W.A., according to an exclusive report from the Hollywood Reporter. Giamatti will play Jerry Heller, former manager of the group.

Original N.W.A. members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre are among the movie's producers, along with Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright. F. Gary Gray is signed on to direct and Will Packer and Scott Bernstein are the executive producers. Cube and Gray have worked together in the past, as Gray directed Cube when he starred in the movie "Friday."

Giamatti's character Heller was a major player in the music industry prior to working with N.W.A., whose initials stood for N***** With Attitude. Heller had represented Journey, REO Speedwagon and organized early American tours for acts like Elton John and Pink Floyd.

Heller co-founded the music label Ruthless Records with Eazy-E, who was also an original member of N.W.A. He managed the band over the span of their success. When Dr. Dre and Ice Cube left the group, many pointed fingers toward Heller as the cause of the problems.

In "Straight Outta Compton," Ice Cube's son O'Shea Jackson Jr. will play his father onscreen, along with Jason Mitchell as the late Eazy-E and Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre. The film is set in the mid-1980s in south central Los Angeles, following N.W.A. both before and after fame when the group released their iconic self-titled album in 1988.

Universal is set to release "Sraight Outta Compton" on Aug. 14, 2015.

After N.W.A. pioneered the genre of West Coast gangsta rap in the late 1980s, Compton has been a breeding ground for successful rap artists. Rappers like critically acclaimed Kendrick Lamar and newcomer YG both hail from the Southern California area.