Despite the release of various biopics on music artists, one artist who hasn’t gotten his life story told on the big screen is Tupac Shakur.
Carl Franklin will be the next director taking the challenge. With episodes of “House Of Cards,” “Bloodline,” “Homeland” and “The Affair” under his belt , Franklin seems like a good choice. He will inherit a spot previously occupied by .
In a post on Instagram, Singleton revealed why he is no longer involved in bringing Shakur’s story to a theater near you via a major studio. Instead, Singleton is choosing to make his own Shakur film to give the rapper his proper due with dignity and respect paid to his legacy.
“Real talk! The reason I am not making this picture is because the people involved aren’t really respectful of the legacy of Tupac Amaru Shakur. I won’t say much if you want you can read my articles in Hollywood Reporter on authenticity in Black Storytelling … To Pac’s real fans just know I am still planning a movie on Tupac … It doesn’t matter what they do mines will be better… ,” Singleton said Tuesday (April 7). “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 4 Pac so this movie will not be made with love! And that’s why my ass 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. What Yall think about that?!!”
Deadline acknowledges that Singleton “seemed a strong choice” to helm the Tupac film while mentioning rave reviews given to the Broadway musical inspired by the rapper, “Holler If Ya Hear Me, which ultimately shut down after 38 performances.
“There may well be a movie in there somewhere — the narrative wasn’t biographical, but it found a way to show the poigniance of Shakur’s lyrics by putting them in a contemporary context that made clear why his songs are relevant and sell so strongly, long after his murder,” the site stated about the musical.
“…Singleton seemed a strong choice, but sometimes these movies find their way to the screen in their own time, as we saw with several Oscar-bait films last year. This is something that is happening with the numerous Janis Joplin films, and hasn’t yet happened with Jimi Hendrix (remember when Paul Greengrass was ready to make a Hendrix movie with Legendary’s Thomas Tull, and Anthony Mackie playing the guitar god, only to have that nixed by the estate?). You hope they wait and get it right with Shakur, but the push to make a Tupac film will likely surge again after this summer’s release of Universal’s ‘Straight Outta Compton,’”
Concluding it’s analysis, Deadline praised “Straight Outta Compton” director F. Gary Gray as someone who “seems to have thoughtfully framed out the birth of a culturally important movement, the kind of atom-splitting moment narrative that made films like “The Social Network” and “The Imitation Game” so compelling.”
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