A biopic of Bernie Mac is in the works from John Legend, the musician who co-starred in “Soul Men” with the late, great Chicago comedian.
It will be “the ‘Soul Men’ reunion you all wanted to see,” Legend joked during a Thursday panel discussion at the 2021 Tribeca Festival.
The singer’s producing partner, Mike Jackson, said Mac’s estate is teaming up with Legend’s production company, Get Lifted, to make the feature film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“[Mac’s] humor was always edgy but it always had so much heart to it at the same time,” Legend said at the event. “You could tell he was a family man. You could tell that he loved the people he was talking about.”
Mac grew up mostly in Chicago and attended Chicago Vocational Career Academy, where an auditorium is named for him.
Sharing a bill with Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley, he performed in a hugely successful stand-up tour that was captured in the hit film “The Original Kings of Comedy.” His 2001-06 sitcom “The Bernie Mac Show” earned him two Emmy Award nominations, and his other films included “Friday,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Mr. 3000.”
Mac died in 2008 after a battle with sarcoidosis, a disease that agitates tissue, particularly in the lungs.
