Before Straight Outta Compton even hit theaters there were rumors swarming about a Tupac biopic. Back in January, news broke that filming would begin in June in Atlanta. It was even confirmed that John Singleton, (who has directed Boyz N The Hood, Poetic Justice, and Baby Boy) would be the director. But less than one week after confirming that news, Singleton revealed he would be stepping away from the film.
He stated, “The reason I am not making this picture is because the people involved aren’t really respectful of the legacy of Tupac Amaru Shaku. It doesn’t matter what they do, mine will be better. Tupac was much more than a hip-hop artist; he was a black man guided by his passions. Of most importance was his love of black people and culture…something the people involved in this movie know nothing about…real talk! How you gonna make a movie about a man when you suing his mother to get the rights to tell his story. They have no true love for ‘Pac so this movie will not be made with love. And that’s why my a** isn’t involved! If Tupac knew what was going on he’d ride on all these fools and take it to the streets…but I won’t do that. I’ll just make my own project.”
Singleton may not play a role in making the film, but it didn’t stop producer Randall Emmett from moving forward with his plan. Emmett took to his Instagram on Tuesday to confirm the news that there is a Tupac biopic in the works and filming will begin in December. Two weeks ago he announced he was holding a casting call for the film. What’s most convincing of all is a photo of a poster of Tupac that he uploaded onto his Instagram which reads “Tupac”, “Coming soon 2016”.
Emmett also took the time to tag Mark Wahlberg, LT Hutton, Kevin Conley, Omari Hardwick, Jerry Ferrara, Naturi Naughton, and 50 Cent in the posts to thank them for being great partners. At this time it unclear what 50 Cent is actually contributing to the film, I guess we will have to wait and see. The film’s IDBM page lists Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, as an executive-producer, so it’s definitely going down this time around!
Do you think Tupac’s biopic movie will be as successful as Straight Outta Compton?
