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Artist News Legal Media
Co-producers in Tupac biopic go legal
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 29 October 2015
The previously reported long-in-development Tupac Shakur biopic is now the subject of a lawsuit, with the two production companies involved in the venture in dispute.
A company called Emmett Furla Oasis is a co-producer on the project along with Morgan Creek Productions, the firm more publicly associated with the Tupac movie. The former says that the latter has now breached a co-production agreement by selecting a lead actor, setting a budget and confirming a production schedule without its approval. EFO is reportedly seeking $10 million in damages.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, EFO says it signed on as a co-producer of the Tupac film in 2013, the project having previously stalled. The company says in its lawsuit, filed in LA: “[The] plaintiffs’ involvement with the project caused the resurrection of the picture. Specifically, because of the plaintiffs, the picture was effectively reintroduced into the marketplace after a long period of inactivity, and the plaintiffs immediately advanced the development and production of the picture”.
It seems that there were some tensions between the two producers early on in the partnership, but things came to a head earlier this year after the release of that other hip hop biopic, ‘Straight Outta Compton’. After that came out EFO says Morgan Creek started making demands that were not part of the original agreement, possibly in a bid to ramp up the Tupac project to capitalise on the reception the NWA biopic had enjoyed.
Responding, a spokesperson for Morgan Creek told THR that, in fact, EFO had not delivered on its side of the two companies’ deal, stating that “their responsibility was to come in with half the budget. That didn’t happen… end of story”.