You wouldn't necessarily know it unless you pay close attention to casting news, but 50 Cent has been keeping pretty busy as an actor lately. The shocking photo of him that made the rounds on the Internet a few months ago was the result of weight loss for a role in the football drama Things Fall Apart, and he recently starred in a film based on his own screenplay, The Gun. Unfortunately his movies that have actually hit theaters haven't made much of an impact-- Twelve, in which he plays a drug dealer, was an instantly legendary flop over the summer, and Caught in the Crossfire was more notable for Internet memes like this one than its actual quality.
50 Cent, though, is undaunted, and has teamed up with another list of unlikely co-stars for his next film, Lives of the Saints. According to Variety he'll be joined by Meg Ryan, John Lithgow, Joe Anderson and Kat Dennings, with Chris Rossi directing his screenplay. That's a collection of a lot of actors with wildly different career prospects-- Ryan is a formerly gigantic star who hasn't had a hit in many years, Lithgow a veteran fresh off an Emmy win for Dexter, and Anderson and Dennings both up-and-comers with plenty of other projects vying for their attention. I can't even fathom what drew this bunch to Lives of the Saints, especially given the sub-Crash-hackneyed plot description: "Film tells the intertwining stories of a group of Angelenos seeking redemption for past mistakes, only to find that forgiveness comes from unlikely places."
The film starts shooting in Los Angeles on November 13, and will be pitched to distributors at next year's American Film Market. Don't worry, I'll remind you of all of this once it comes out, since you'll inevitably have forgotten something so strange exists in the meantime.
