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After years of rumors about the film, a biopic about the life and career of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur is finally set to begin filming this June, according to producer Randall Emmett.

Speaking with Collider about the planned feature, Emmett revealed new information about the production.

“That project is being put together for a June start date,” he said. “The script is great. We’re ready to make the movie. We’re just prepping the logistics.”

One of the biggest pieces of news to break from Emmett’s interview is one specifically relevant to the musical biopic genre as the movie industry vet explained that the Tupac biopic will feature the rapper’s original music.

“Morgan Creek bought the rights to the music and we share fifty percent of the rights with Morgan Creek,” he said. “So Morgan Creek acquired all the music rights from the estate when they partnered with Tupac’s mother.”

“Our story, like a lot of biopics, especially in the hip-hop space, will start [by setting] up the beginning of his life,” he added. “Kind of set up his beginnings and then go into the key years of leading up to the pinnacle of his success. Those three or four key years of his rise…We want to be real and raw about the things and the life and the gangster life he was involved in growing up in the way he grew up, but we also want to honor the talent. He really was, in my opinion, for sure, one of the greatest talents that ever lived in music and in hip-hop.”

An actor has yet to be cast for the lead role of Tupac himself, but reassuringly the rapper’s mother has signed off on the project and is overseeing portions of production herself.

Last year, a Tupac-inspired Broadway musical starring poet and musician Saul Williams closed early after a run of 55 performances.

“It’s clear that Tupac is never going to die,” Williams told Rolling Stone after the play shut down. “I have no idea what Eric is up to, but they went into this knowing that they could have started with a tour before Broadway, but they wanted that Broadway stamp and this is the cost of that stamp. Anything that involves struggle involves finance. America’s been on the wrong side of history lots of times. We were allies with Germany until Charlie Chaplin came out with The Great Dictator and then we were like, ‘Holy fuck’ and we switched sides. When you do something fresh and new, you’re going to face obstacles and I promise you this story isn’t over.”

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