Looks like the 2Pac biopic is finally underway. I’m happy for them and I wish them best of luck with this challenging subject. I pitched on this project. In retrospect I think my take had no chance of getting through the familial red-tape. Here was my pitch in a nutshell.

“Tupac” is a classic American Gangster film in the vein of Goodfellas with a twist, the “gangsters” are all musicians and entertainers walking the tight rope between what is ‘real’ and what is ‘entertainment.’ The film focuses on the rise and fall of Tupac Shakur in the final stage of his life “The Death Row Year” and his relationship with Suge Knight, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. We follow the breathtaking implosion of Death Row Records, the “world’s most dangerous record label”, and the events that transpired from the moment in October 1995 when Suge Knight bailed Pac out of prison to the infamous night 11 months later when they were both shot in Las Vegas. We see Pac record perhaps the greatest rap album in history “All Eyez on Me” and explore his creative and artistic heart, while getting an eyewitness view into how one of the most powerful voices of his generation was pulled to the dark-side in his quest to always be ‘real’.

Rather than being a straight music bio-pic in the vein of Ray or Walk the Line, “Tupac” is a crime film that just happens to be about a rapper. Told with unflinching realism a la Un Prophete.