Muddled Tupac movie in negotiations for new director

We may be getting closer to getting a Tupac movie after all.

According to Billboard.com, Morgan Creek is in negotiations to hire music video director Benny Boom for the project. The news comes after acclaimed TV director Carl Franklin (The Leftovers, House of Cards), who was slated to direct the film, dropped out suddenly. Franklin wasn’t the first director to back out of the project, as John Singleton (Four Brothers) dropped out in April after unhappiness with the production company.

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… 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?!!

A photo posted by JOHN SINGLETON (@johnsingleton) on Apr 7, 2015 at 3:53pm PDT

The race to get the movie made seems a bit jaded. If Morgan Creek doesn’t get the film in production by the end of the year, then the music rights revert back to Shakur’s mother. Rarely do films that try to beat the clock for rights purposes ever succeed. (*COUGH* Fantastic Four *Cough*.)

The idea for a Tupac movie isn’t a bad one, given the success of Straight Outta Compton (where Marcc Rose briefly played him) and the fact the rapper hasn’t been featured prominently in a film since 2009’s Notorious (played by Anthony Mackie). But this doesn’t seem like a labor of love for the rapper, as much as a quick cash-grab.

Boom doesn’t really have credibility as a film director, although he’s done music videos for Nicki Minaj and Snoop Dogg among others. His biggest feature film is the direct to DVD sequel to S.W.A.T. called S.W.A.T.: Firefight, which apparently is a film that exists.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t be excited we may be finally getting a Tupac movie, but given this news, we shouldn’t get our hopes too high.

[Image via CBS News]