All 'Eyez' Are on Tupac Shakur in New Biopic Teaser
In the wake of last year’s blockbuster NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton, audiences are about to get another dramatization of one of the era’s rap titans, Tupac Shakur. Now we have the first look at the big-screen version of his life story called All Eyez on Me. Watch the video above.
Demetrius Shipp Jr. in ‘All Eyez on Me’
Due this November, All Eyez on Me — named after the rapper’s 1996 double-album — will chart Tupac’s rise to superstardom from the mean streets of East Harlem, where he was raised by his activist mother Afeni Shakur (The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira). Tupac himself will be embodied by newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr. — his few appearances in the clip are just long enough to underline how much he evokes the real-life Shakur. Set to Afeni’s fierce, fight-the-power narration, we see scenes of gangland gun-toting, menacing cops and federal agents, and the rapper being adulated in the spotlight while crowds chant his name.
Tupac Shakur in 1993 (Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images)
Directed by Benny Boom (Wild for the Night), the movie also features Notorious star Jamal Woolard in his second appearance as rapper Notorious B.I.G., meaning that All Eyez on Me is something like the second entry in a ’90s Hip-Hop Cinematic Universe. And with a prime fall release date, producers must envision the film — which will cover the rapper’s entire life, up to and including his 1996 death in a shooting in Las Vegas — attracting the same sort of awards chatter as Straight Outta Compton did. (Though it was mostly snubbed at the Oscars, Compton did nab a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.)
You can check out the initial teaser above. The film opens on Nov. 11.
