The life and career of Tupac Shakur has been ripe for a big-screen adaptation, however legal battles and rights issues has prevented the film from happening.
With the unbridled success of Straight Outta Compton - now officially the biggest musical biopic of all-time - there's been a lot of renewed interest in taking on Tupac's story again.
Morgan Creek has been heavily involved with getting the film off the ground, going so far as to sue Afeni Shakur - Tupac's mother - for the rights to use his music. Various directors, such as John Singleton and Antoine Fuqua, have come and gone, however it now appears that the studio's finally settled on a director.
Benny Boom, a veteran music video director who worked with the likes of Nelly, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, R. Kelly and countless others, is in the process of signing on to direct the long-awaited biopic.
However, previous hopeful John Singleton wasn't all that enthused about the project, commenting that the people involved "aren't really respectful of Tupac's legacy."
Morgan Creek will need to move fast on this for two reasons. Firstly, there's been talk of a sequel to Straight Outta Compton that would focus on Snoop Dogg and Tupac, both of whom were reasonably prominent characters in the film. Secondly, if the film doesn't get its production started by the end of the year, the music rights revert back to Afeni Shakur and that's pretty much it.
In fairness, if it doesn't come off for them, it's no bad thing. Better that we have no Tupac Shakur biopic than a terrible one, we think. It's also surprising that John Singleton left the project, considering he knew Tupac personally and worked with him on the 1993 classic, Poetic Justice.
What do you think? Are you excited for a Tupac biopic or would you rather they leave it alone? Let us know in the comments!
Via THR.com
