After Universal Pictures‘ success with its N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton” and the obvious audience hunger for more music-focused biopics, with Lionsgate‘s “Michael” earning a hefty box office haul crossing the billion-dollar mark, the studio is setting its sights on exploring the rise of Snoop Dogg in the rap game.
The film directed by Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow,” “Dolemite Is My Name”) titled “Snoop” will also feature Snoop’s industry cohorts Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, and Warren G. We now have actors cast in the latter two roles, as The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Camron Jones (“Panic”) is set to play Tupac, and Warren G is going to have actor Algee Smith (“Euphoria”) inhabit the role.
The pair of new additions join Jonathan Daviss (“Outer Banks”) as Snoop (aka Calvin Broadus Jr.), Myles Bullock (“Runaways”) as veteran producer/raper Dr. Dre, and Lauren London (“Without Remorse”) playing Snoop’s mother, Beverly. Snoop became very successful at a very young age, coming out of Long Beach, California, and getting into the world of rap as a teenager.
You might remember that in the 1990s, Snoop got caught up in a murder charge when he was in the vicinity of the crime that happened in 1993, and he was acquitted of both first-degree and second-degree murder charges in 1996. And he would eventually develop an adorable friendship with personality Martha Stewart, which has turned into a fun wink-and-nod as they’ve worked together on various TV projects and commercial ads.
Snoop, like fellow Cali rappers Tupac and Ice Cube (may or may not be in the pic), attempted to get a Hollywood career, appearing in movies like “Training Day,” “Half Baked,” “Bones,” “Soul Plane,” “Starsky & Hutch,” and more recently was seen in the Netflix vampire action flick “Day Shift.”
Brewer wrote the latest draft of the script that had been previously worked on by Joe Robert Cole (“Black Panther,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”). It is being produced by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, no stranger to this world after making the Eminem flick “8 Mile,” and Allan Mandelbaum. Death Row Pictures (the rapper now owns Death Row Records) president Sara Ramaker and Snoop are also part of the producing team.
Filming on “Snoop” is said to begin in mid-September, and as you’d expect, shooting will be in and around the Los Angeles area. We suspect more names will be added to the cast, as Suge Knight, the infamously violent Death Row Records CEO, and other rappers from the 1990s (East and West Coast) have yet to be cast.
