The long-awaited Tupac Shakur biopic finally has a release date. Morgan Creek Productions and Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment said that "All Eyez on Me" would arrive in theaters on June 16 on what would have been the slain rapper's 46th birthday.
The release of "All Eyez on Me" will follow Shakur's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April.
Filmed last year in Atlanta, the movie stars Demetrius Shipp Jr. as the rapper as well as Danai Gurira, Kat Graham, Hill Harper, Lauren Cohan and Jamie Hector.
Jamal Woolard will reprise his role as the late Notorious B.I.G., a part he first played in the 2009 biopic about Shakur's friend-turned-rival, "Notorious."
"All Eyez on Me" is named after the rapper's hit fourth album _ his first on the controversial Death Row label and one of the highest-selling rap albums of all time.
Although Shakur's life had been well mined through various books and documentaries, including the 2003 film "Tupac: Resurrection" and 2002's "Biggie & Tupac" about his rivalry with the Notorious B.I.G., getting a biopic to the big screen has proved quite difficult.
In 2011, Morgan Creek announced that it had teamed with Emmett Furla Oasis Films to co-finance and co-produce the film, with Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day," "Tears of the Sun," "Brooklyn's Finest") attached to direct, and launched an online casting call to find a lead to fill the shoes of the rapper with a complicated legacy.
His slaying, like that of peer Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G.), remains unsolved.
A legal battle between Morgan Creek and Shakur's mother, Afeni, over creative control also added to the project's hold-ups _ both parties eventually settled.
The picture then suffered another setback when Fuqua dropped out a few months later. John Singleton was next to fill the director's chair, signing on to rewrite, direct and produce the film in 2014. A little over a year later, however, Singleton was out and Carl Franklin ("Devil in a Blue Dress") was in. Singleton criticized producers for not respecting Shakur's legacy.
The film is produced by James G. and David C. Robinson of Morgan Creek Productions, along with Program Pictures' L.T. Hutton. Benny Boom directed from a script by Ed Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft.
