George Tillman Jr., creator of Soul Food and Barbershop, will direct a biopic of hip-hop artist Notorious B.I.G., also known as Biggie.
Sean "Diddy" Combs, a rapper himself and the producer of Notorious B.I.G.'s first album, Ready to Die, will be the film's executive producer.
Notorious B.I.G. (left), shown with Sean Combs, producer of his first record, Ready to Die, in 1997.
(Associated Press)
Studio Fox Searchlight has issued a U.S.-wide casting call for someone to play Notorious B.I.G., whose real name is Christopher Wallace.
Shooting is set for this fall on the biopic, titled Notorious, which has been in the works for seven years.
Notorious B.I.G. was killed in a 1997 drive-by shooting in Los Angeles after becoming a major figure in East Coast hip hop. His second album, Life After Death, was released 15 days after his death.
Born in Brooklyn, he was a notorious drug dealer before his music career.
Tillman, who says he's a Notorious B.I.G fan, is an African-American director best known for helming the films Soul Food and Men of Honour and for producing the TV series and films, Barbershop and Beauty Shop.
"We know he will make a brilliant movie and show the true humanity of Christopher Wallace's character," said Fox Searchlight's Claudia Lewis.
The script was written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker, a hip hop journalist, who wrote the biography Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.
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