Today, June 16, 2016, would have been the 45th birthday of Tupac Shakur. Unfortunately, the rapper's life was cut short. However, today seems to be a fitting day to get our first look at the movie that will tell the story of his remarkable life. The Tupac biopic All Eyez on Me has been in development since around the beginning of this decade, but finally, after struggling through multiple writers and directors, not to mention lawsuits, the movie is finally on its way. Here's your first look at the movie via the first teaser trailer.
While the career of Tupac Shakur was not nearly as long as it could have been, the time he spent making music had a significant impact on the world of rap music. It's no wonder that there has been a desire to turn the man's story into a feature film. The fact that his life ended tragically, shot on the street in Las Vegas, only adds to the mystique of the tale. There are still many questions about what happened that night, something this teaser trailer points out.
In the grand scheme of things, making sure your lead strongly resembles your main character in a biopic is actually a minor detail when it comes to making a good movie. Having said that, All Eyez on Me appears to have found an absolute doppelganger in Demetrius Shipp Jr. He looks so much like Tupac Shakur that you'd be forgiven for thinking they were using actual footage of the man, or perhaps a hologram.
Much like the struggle that All Eyez On Me shows its main character going through in life, the film had a significant struggle of its own just getting made. Five years ago, Training Day director Antione Fuqua first signed on to direct the movie. When he dropped out, Boyz in the Hood director John Singleton took the reigns. However, last year he left the film as well, due to issues with the studio, Morgan Creek. There was a strong indication that Singleton saw the film heading down the wrong path and had to bail out in order to avoid being associated with it.
Morgan Creek's problems were far from over, however, as they were then sued by their co-production company, Emmett Furla Oasis, for making decisions unilaterally. If anything, it's utterly amazing that All Eyez On Me has actually survived this long in order to successfully be made - but it did, and will soon be coming to a theater near you.
All Eyez on Me is surely looking to recreate the success of last summer's Straight Outta Compton, the biopic of rap group N.W.A. which won critical acclaim while smashing box office records - though winning few awards.We'll find out if its successful later this year, as All Eyez on Me is set for release on November 11th.
