50Cent Tagged Articles at Cinematical

50 Cent has been racking up the gigs lately, grabbing everything from Jekyll and Hyde to a sports drama called The Dance. And now he's got a new gig with upcoming action wunderman Chris Klein. Variety reports that he, Klein, Adam Rodriguez, and Richard T. Jones are starring in a new corrupt cop drama called Caught in the Crossfire, which newcomer Brian Miller wrote, and is currently directing in Grand Rapids.

The story follows two homicide detectives who get stuck in a mess between a gang-related homicide and some dirty cops. 50 Cent will play "a gang-banger who becomes a reluctant informant" -- not surprising, and certainly not a stretch for him. There's no word on the rest, however, but I'm guessing that Chris Klein will play one of the cops ... perhaps a corrupt cop to rival his "Razzie-worthy" Interpol agent in Street Fighter? The guy is definitely trying to up his tough cred, but will he ever be able to rise beyond the ashes of his sex-obsessed innocent cherubs from American Pie and Election?

Probably not, but he might have a future gig in tourism. In the clip below, local news visits the set and talks to the actors and director, who rave all over the place about the wonders of Grand Rapids. Klein, for one, overtly praises the area with a PR-laced straight and seemingly genuine face. At least he has that going for him. If not, once this tough-guy thing comes to an end he could probably go back to his schtick and get a gig as Finn's older brother on Glee.

You just never know what Hollywood is going to give us. First, we get the rarely emotive Keanu Reeves set to take on the world of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which wasn't an idea that pleased many readers. Almost a week later, we're getting another remake of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and this cast might surprise you more than the first -- although it's still sure to be better. Variety reports that Abel Ferrara is re-imagining the story into a contemporary setting, calling it Jekyll and Hyde, and getting Forest Whitaker and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson to star. (To be fair: Fangoria got the scoop a few weeks ago.)

Variety just says they'll play "the lead roles," but the Fangoria link fills in the particulars. While I would love to see Whitaker really command the role and both Jekyll and Hyde, which I'm sure he could do with ease) Ferrara is, sadly, splitting up the duties. Whitaker will play Jekyll, while 50 Cent plays Hyde. Nicholas De Cegli, who also grabs a role, said: "It's gonna be played totally straight. In this movie, it's the rich white people who get terrorized, and I'm going to be playing one of those white guys."

It sounds interesting, but I'm still wishing we could see Whitaker grab both and command the world of split personalities. But what do you think about this new reimagining?

We've already had The Wackness, which dealt with NYC and drug-dealing, but while that had some scary lip-on-lip action, it didn't have a murder twist -- not like this new drug drama. Variety reports that Joel Schumacher is directing Jordan Melamed's adaptation of Nick McDonell's novel Twelve. It's a book that's been compared to both Less Than Zero and Kids, and there's a pretty eclectic cast attached: Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, 50 Cent, Ellen Barkin, and Kiefer Sutherland.

Written in 2002 by a then-17-year-old McDonell, the book follows a high school dropout and drug dealer whose life derails when his cousin is murdered on an East Harlem playground and his best friend is arrested for the crime. So we've got a gritty tale of drugs and affluence, murder, dysfunction, and it'll star a pretty boy from Gossip Girl, the girl who keeps a hotel for dogs, and her Lymelife co-star ... plus a rap star, a woman who started her career with Up in Smoke, and Mr. 24.

I imagine this will be the sort of project that pulls Crawford and Roberts firmly into a different cinematic world, or gently pushes them back to lighter fare. But what's more interesting is what Schumacher will do with this material. He's certainly not the first name that would pop up for this sort of project, but re-teaming with Flatliners and The Lost Boys Sutherland might just be the reinvigoration Schumacher needs. Maybe?

The film hits production soon and is slated for a winter 2010 release.

Well, you know what they say: If you want something done right, you're going to have to do it yourself. The Yahoo! Business section is now reporting that rapper Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson has purchased his very own production company (with the unappealing name of Cheetah Vision) and that he already has his first project picked out. Jackson announced that he's selected the script The Dance as his first film under his Cheetah banner, and that he'll star alongside Nicolas Cage in the action-drama.

Jackson will play a boxer who is sent to state prison (well, what else could we expect? 50 Cent as a sensitive tax attorney?) and Cage will play the founder of a boxing program within the prison. According to Jackson, The Dance "was previously passed around a little bit but both me and Nicolas Cage had an interest in the film so it will still happen."

Now that Jackson has his very own shingle, he has plans for all kinds of films in the near future. He says, "They are all different types of movies that I bought the rights to, and we're developing projects. You will see different things from me in the future." Jackson has slowly been working his way onto the big screen over the last couple of years, but as we all know, it didn't work out as planned. That said, he still has a few more chances to make a name for himself as an actor when he stars in Streets of Blood with Val Kilmer and 13 with Mickey Rourke.

Sound off below on whether you think Jackson has what it takes to make it to the Oscar podium, or is he better off staying in the recording studio?

Whatever you do, don't throw Michael Mann's Heat (or God forbid, The Godfather II) into the DVD player prior to venturing off to your local theater to see Righteous Kill. Part of you might want to watch the film that last featured Robert De Niro and Al Pacino opposite one another to get you in the mood, but you'll surely be disappointed when the popcorn's run out and what you're watching on the big screen doesn't even belong in the same conversation as the film you just watched at home. That's because Righteous Kill is a predictable pile of pass me the paycheck, with both De Niro and Pacino phoning in a combination of past performances -- of men with tough, no-nonsense New York City exteriors and sly, slickly-delivered one-liners. This isn't the De Niro and Pacino of old ... it is, unfortunately, the older De Niro and Pacino.

Since Righteous Kill was written by Russell Gewirtz, there are definitely similarities between this and his last script, Inside Man -- both films are about men who do bad things for the good of the people. Righteous Kill opens with a voice-over from Detective Turk (De Niro) against some grainy, black-and-white video. Turk tells us he's killed 14 people during his years as an NYPD cop ("most people respect the badge ... everyone respects the gun"), but they were all lowlife thugs who deserved it. After some quick-yet-stylish (and somewhat annoying) cuts back and forth through time, we finally arrive at a pretty standard whodunnit with both Turk and his partner Rooster (Pacino) hot on the tail of a serial killer who leaves the equivalent of third-grade poetry with each of his victims. Roses are red, violets are blue ... I guessed all of Act III and so will you.

***NSFW WARNING: The F-bomb gets thrown around a bunch in this clip of "The End."***

There's an interesting rumor going around that Val Kilmer is teaming up with 50 Cent for a little music. According to Ace Showbiz, the actor stated in a recent interview that 50 Cent liked one of the songs he had written and said "I want to help." How much the pair (who recently worked on Microwave Park together) will collaborate on the tune remains to be seen, but it did get me thinking of old-school Kilmer.

Seventeen years ago, he pretty much morphed into Jim Morrison for Oliver Stone's take on The Doors. Above is a clip of Jim-Val singing "The End" and shocking everyone with his unabashed language. Aside from it being a great song, it's a good example of just how spot-on Kilmer was.

Last Rewind Answer: This time around, the majority got it right -- Jason Segel was the guy.

... and they say to the bartender, "Bet you never expected the three of us would team up on a film?" The bartender takes a good look at the three, goes back to cleaning a glass and replies, "Nah, I kinda expected it." Then Dylan McDermott, Brian Presley and Charles Winkler (son of Irwin Winkler) walk into the bar, and go, "Now what if we told you the three of us were involved too -- with Charles directing! And it's called Streets of Blood!" The bartender, tending to his glass, simply replies, "Nah, expected it." Fed up, Charles Winkler throws down his fist and shouts, "And it's gonna be a damn good film too!" Bartender drops his glass in a fit of laughter, looks up and cries, "Now THAT'S something I did not expect!" Everyone laughs and Erik will never become a comedian. The end.

Variety tells us the film centers on two cops dealing with "the lawlessness of New Orleans in the post-Katrina environment." Production begins next month. Another post-Katrina story, huh? Is it just me or is Hollywood really milking Hurricane Katrina? Perhaps I see more of it because I attend a lot of film festivals, and currently there are tons of Katrina docs and narratives on the fest circuit. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, it just seems like a lot and we're getting close to overkill. This one, however, does sound like it has promise. Plus I've always wanted to see Kilmer, 50 Cent and Stone together in one film. Why not, right?

There you have it. Not only is Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino back together, making cinematic history but rapper 50 Cent might be wedged between them. The impending production of Righteous Kill has people more excited than Paris Hilton's release, but we'll have a long time to wait, since the script is sitll being dreamed up by Russel Gewirtz, who wrote Inside Man with the smokin' hot Denzel Washington and Clive Owen.

50 Cent's participation in the film is not yet finalized. According to Hollywood Reporter he is in "final negotiations" to co-star. If all contractual agreements run smoothly, 50 will portray a drug dealer who aids DeNiro and Pacino -- detectives who are working to track down a serial killer -- in finding their wanted person. I can't yet comment on 50 Cent as a casting choice since his only prior acting role was as a close-to-life character in Get Rich or Die Tryin' in 2005. Still, he has announced (not including Righteous Kill) three projects to be filmed in the coming months.

Gewirtz is known to be writing the script in such a way as to give Pacino and DeNiro as much on screen time together as possible. The two, in their prime, starred in The Godfather II and then in Heat in 1995. The latter was the only flim they've ever actually shared screen-time in, however. It's almost a joke that two of the greatest actors of our time have never shared more than a single scene on the big screen. Righteous Kill is expected to reach theatres in 2008.

Fresh off his stint on the venerable soap General Hospital, and appearances in films such as End Game with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Home of the Brave opposite super-hot Jessica Biel and my man Samuel L. Jackson, young up-and-comer Brian Presley is poised to land a new role -- starring with Robert De Niro and rapper 50 Cent in the thriller Microwave Park (which our own Erik wrote about before) -- at least according to a recent Production Weekly article.

The film, directed by Tim Hunter and scripted by Eugine Hess, centers on a cop (played by De Niro) who thinks his partner died during Hurricane Katrina. Later, he discovers this is false information and that his partner, a cop accused of corruption, was actually murdered. After he finds this out, De Niro's character decides to investigate the case even though his bosses are not very happy about it. To further complicate things, he's assigned a new partner (played by 50 Cent) and as the two begin to investigate, and decide if they can really trust each other, they soon find themselves neck-deep in a conspiracy that involves police corruption and even more murders.

As much as this sounds like a pretty interesting story, I just have to wonder about 50 Cent's acting ability. Sure, there are rappers who've successfully made the transition -- Will Smith, Ice Cube, Mos Def and Ludacris being prime examples -- but that doesn't mean every rapper needs to start an acting career. Unfortunately, after seeing 50 Cent's work in Get Rich or Die Tryin' I have to say that I don't hold out much hope -- after all, in that film, he had trouble playing himself. But hey, maybe he'll surprise us all. It could happen. Besides, whatever happens with 50 Cent, I'm sure it won't take away from the stellar work Brian Presley will do in the film -- and that De Niro isn't so bad either. Production on Microwave Park (or whatever it ends up being called) is set to begin on January 15th in New Orleans and Shreveport, LA.

As New York frantically prepares for the arrival of Tom Cruise (by speedboat, no less!), McDonald's has bigger (Filet O') fish to fry. Also: felons are getting their Fiddy, and Fred Durst is totally getting his directorial debut on, beeyotch.

Get the podcast
[Watch] Online (please make sure you have the latest version of Quicktime for best results).
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the Cinematical Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator to have all of Cinematical's rich content delivered automatically.

Hosts
Karina Longworth

Editor
Randall Bennett

Music
Love as Laughter - I'm a bee

Format
5:30, 32 MB, MPEG4 (iPod / PSP compatible)

Program
00:00 - Cruise is coming to town!
02:04 - Bizkit's Durst sez' he's the next Scorsese
02:49 - McDonalds preparing Fast Food Nation counterattack
03:52 - While Brokeback ain't fit for prisons, 50 Cent's masterpiece apparently is