Tupac Shakur's story is ready to be told.
Antoine Fuqua, who guided Denzel Washington through his Oscar-winning performance as one of the most corrupt cop characters in the history of cinema in "Training Day," has signed on to direct "TUPAC," the long in-development biopic that's finally set to commence principal photography in the late spring/early summer, according to Deadline.
Tupac Shakur began his career as a roadie and backup dancer for the hip hop group Digital Underground and went on to become one of the most successful music artists in the world, selling over 75 million records to date.
Tupac was also an up-and-coming actor, appearing in Ernest Dickerson's gritty drug thriller, "Juice," the ghetto sports drama, "Above the Rim" (pictured) and the dark comedy about two junkie friends struggling to get clean, "Gridlock'd," in which he co-starred with Tim Roth.
A key player in the East Coast/West Coast hip hop rivalry of the early-to-mid-'90s, Tupac was shot and killed near Las Vegas on September 13, 1996. He was 25 years old.
"TUPAC" will be produced by James G. Robinson, David Robinson and LT Hutton... and will be executive produced by none other than Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, under the Morgan Creek Productions banner.
No word on casting yet, though we're sure a lot of agents are currently making a lot of phone calls to the Morgan Creek offices.
