'12 Years a Slave' Director Steve McQueen to Helm Tupac Shakur Documentary
A documentary on Tupac Shakur has been authorized by the estate of the late rapper with 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen on board.
The announcement was made Tuesday by estate trustee Tom Whalley and Amaru Entertainment, the company created by Afeni Shakur to release her son’s posthumous projects. Nigel Sinclair’s White Horse Pictures and Jayson Jackson will produce the fully authorized documentary with Amaru.
Producers are Jackson, who produced What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Sinclair, producer on The Beatles: Eight Days a Week. Also producing are Whalley and Nicholas Ferrall. Gloria Cox, Tupac Shakur’s aunt and Afeni Shakur’s only sister, will executive produce along with White Horse’s Jeanne Elfant Festa.
“I am extremely moved and excited to be exploring the life and times of this legendary artist,” McQueen said. “I attended NYU film school in 1993 and can remember the unfolding hip-hop world and mine overlapping with Tupac’s through a mutual friend in a small way. Few, if any shined brighter than Tupac Shakur. I look forward to working closely with his family to tell the unvarnished story of this talented man.”
White Horse’s Cassidy Hartmann will serve as co-executive producer. The untitled movie will be financed and distributed by Amaru Entertainment.
White Horse Pictures will handle worldwide sales. Interscope Records, the label that released the majority of Shakur’s catalog, and Universal Music Publishing Group will provide full support to the production.
Lionsgate has set a June 16 release for the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me, on what would have been the rapper’s 46th birthday. All Eyez on Me stars Demetrius Shipp, Jr., in his first movie role. The cast of the Morgan Creek movie, filmed last year in Atlanta, includes Danai Gurira, Kat Graham, Annie Ilonzeh, Dominic L. Santana, Jamal Woolard, Keith Robinson, and Cory Hardrict.
The rapper was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in September 1996. He was 25 years old.
News about the documentary was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
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