Antoine Fuqua‘s upcoming biopic on Tupac Shakur has now evidently turned to an online opening casting call to help discover an unknown talent to portray the iconic rapper.
The website InSearchOfTupac.com has been launched by Morgan Creek Productions in conjunction with Skee.TV and Karmaloop.TV offering anyone the chance to upload a 5 minute audition reel performing a monologue — presumably from the script — hoping to find “individuals who embody Tupac for this starring role.”
The story was previously revealed to be centering on the rapper’s final days while flashing back to the final four years of his life with the vague logline noting that the film will chronicle ““the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip hop artist and actor, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row Records, where he was steeped in the East coast/West coast rap war.”
“We’re looking for someone with the right mix of raw charm and charisma for the role,” says producer David Robinson. “At this point, we’re more concerned about finding someone with the ability to give their entire heart into the performance more than just looks and personality.” Interestingly, it doesn’t look like musical abilities are being emphasized with only one minute of the video required for displaying applicant’s musical and/or rapping abilities.
While Fuqua has expressed a desire to cast an unknown since early the project’s conception, the move is no less intriguing considering the high-profile role could have been a major platform for a number of actors. Many, such as “The Hurt Locker” star Anthony Mackie who has already portrayed the rapper in George Tillman Jr.‘s “Notorious,” are struggling to score starring vehicles themselves and live up the last generation of Smiths, Foxxs and Washingtons — all of which is seemingly personified, as Samuel L. Jackson points out, by the number of black male presenters at this year’s Oscars; the answer is none.
David Robinson, James G. Robinson and LT Hutton will be producing the Tupac biopic with lensing reportedly aiming for a late spring/early summer start. Here’s a trailer they’ve released for the open casting call which we hope Fuqua has nothing to do with. [via ScreenRant]