Variety reports that Fox Searchlight Pictures is in talks with Antoine Fuqua to direct a biopic of late rapper Notorious B.I.G..

Born Christopher Wallace, the rapper went from a drug dealer to a hip-hop sensation, helping establish Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy music label. B.I.G. was 24 when he was murdered, gunned down at a Vibe magazine after-party in March 1997. No one was ever charged in the murder. In 2002, his family filed a civil suit against the LAPD and the City of Los Angeles, alleging that police were involved. A mistrial was declared earlier this month.

The script is being written by Cheo Hodari Coker, a former journalist who was the last person to interview the rapper before his death. Coker also wrote the biography “Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.” The biopic won’t be based on the book, but Coker will work closely with the Wallace family to write the screenplay.

The movie will be produced by B.I.G.’s mother, Voletta Wallace, and by his former managers, Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts. They’ve been trying to get the project off the ground for five years.

Barrow told Hollywood Reporter that he hopes to be in production early next year, and the most challenging aspect of the film will be casting.

“The most important element to casting B.I.G. is what we consider the swagger,” Barrow said. “They have to have the element of the man and be able to capture the essence of who he was and his maneuvering, his relishings of life. You can’t instill this in an individual, you just have to have it.”






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