The biopic documenting the life of legendary rapper and actor Tupac Shakur is set to be released in the US on the star’s birthday, June 16.
All Eyez On Me will star Demetrius Shipp Jr. as the rap icon, along with The Walking Dead‘s Danai Gurira as Afeni Shakur, Dominic L. Santana as Suge Knight and Stefon Washington as Puff Daddy.
The film, said to be the ‘real deal’, traces Shakur’s life from his rocky upbringing in East Harlem to his rise in hop-hop and Hollywood, as well as shining light on his connections with the Black Panther party and his relationship with mother Afenis Shakur who died in May last year.
Music video director Benny Boom has taken on the project which has been picked up by Lionsgate in the US.
Tupac was a key player in the culture war of the early 1990s which pitted the West and East coast rappers against each other, a rivalry that ultimately ended in his murder in 1996.
Famously, Tupac was a bitter enemy of New York rapper Biggie Smalls, who was also murdered just a year later.
Intriguingly, Jamal Woolard, who played Biggie in the 2009 movie Notorious, will take up the role of Tupac’s rival again.
The rivalry continues after cast member The Game said:
Tupac movie is the real deal, shit [that] make that Biggie movie look like a cartoon.
The original release date was September last year but it was postponed due to a licensing dispute.
The biopic will be released on June 16 2017 in the US when the late rapper would have turned 46.
