biggie smalls Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It seems kind of gruesome, but if you're a celebrity, the length of your life and how recently you lived can have a direct effect on your biopic. In the case of the great rap star The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. Christopher Wallace) his all-too-brief 24 years of life on this earth do not require too much editing and compressing to fit into a two-hour movie. Unfortunately, since he died as recently as 1997, most of the people involved in his life are still around to offer -- or require -- input into the movie. Hence, the first half of Notorious is a vibrant tribute to its subject and the second half is a kind of housecleaning, making sure that Biggie is laid to rest, cinematically speaking, with a clean slate.

Newcomer Jamal Woolard plays Biggie as an adult, and it's as if he were born to the part. It's almost possible to forget you're watching an actor and to believe that this is the real man playing his own life, as Eminem and 50 Cent played theirs. Biggie lives in Brooklyn under the wing of his overprotective, Jamaican-born mom (Angela Bassett). He's smart but a bad student and eventually moves into the neighborhood drug trade (though he never partakes of his product). He impregnates his girlfriend, goes to jail and fills several notebooks with his unique brand of literate, jovial, fast-paced rhymes. He meets Puff Daddy (Derek Luke), an up-and-coming producer who has an idea for a record called "Juicy." Meanwhile, he discovers -- and sleeps with -- the sexy Lil Kim (Naturi Naughton) and meets and marries his true love, Faith (Antonique Smith).

Wayne Barrow, producer of the film Notorious, has released the first photo of Jamal Woolard in the role of B.I.G. (aka Christopher Wallace) over on his official blog. Dude looks just like B.I.G., who will always go down as one of New York's greatest rap artists. Underneath the photo, Wayne writes, "Although Jamal has a bit of history of his own in the music industry, he is still relatively unknown, which we thought was an integral element in filling the role. Jamal, a Brooklyn native, has been working hard to capture the spirit of Christopher's character, the soul of the man. We are extremely excited about our choice of casting, his natural charm and charismatic demeanor is very reminiscent of B.I.G and we look forward to sharing this ride with him..."

This should be a fascinating little picture, especially if you were/are a fan of Biggie Smalls and his music. (My wife still rocks out the occasional Biggie track in the car during a long road trip.) Starring alongside Woolard will be Angela Bassett (playing Smalls' mother, Voletta), Derek Luke (as Sean "Diddy" Combs) and Anthony Mackie (as Tupac Shakur). George Tillman Jr. will direct, while the film is set to head into production on March 24 in New York City. Fox Searchlight has already set a release date of January 16, 2009 for Notorious.

So, does this guy look like Biggie ... or what?

No, that's not the Notorious B.I.G. That's Jamal Woolard, who has just been cast by Fox Searchlight to play him, Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, in the upcoming biopic Notorious. Man, the only possible critique I could come up with is that his eyebrows are a little dark. That's some spot-on casting. They're definitely not Dead Wrong.

Voletta Wallace, Smalls' mom, is happy with the casting as well: "it was Jamal's charming personality, warm spirit, wonderful sense of humor and beautiful smile that won my heart. He is a talented and charismatic actor and I am excited that he will bring Christopher's character to the big screen." Topping that off, Woolard also has the real-life experience to make this pop. THR adds to the press release, explaining that Jamal is a drug-dealer-turned-rapper just like Wallace was.

Under the directorial eye of George Tillman Jr., we've got Woolard as Wallace, Angela Bassett as Voletta, Derek Luke as Sean Combs, and Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur. Production begins March 24 in New York.

I'm really glad the biopic about Biggie Smalls (aka the Notorious B.I.G., aka Christopher Wallace) is moving forward. I've never been very familiar with his music, but I am a fan of Nick Broomfield's documentary Biggie and Tupac, and because of that film I am in love with Biggie's mom, Voletta Wallace. Miss Wallace is producing her son's biopic, which so far is untitled, and hopefully she'll get to play herself, because I can't imagine an actress doing her justice. Another person I think could maybe play himself is Sean "Diddy" Combs, who Variety reports has hopped on as executive producer. I'm really surprised that Diddy wasn't already involved in the project from the beginning -- it's been in development for seven years -- but the fact that he is now overseeing the production is reassuring that it is in good hands. His only real producing experience is with TV projects like the show Making the Band and the upcoming ABC adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, but Combs was with Biggie throughout the rapper's career and he'll certainly be able to provide a lot of input.

In addition to Wallace and Combs, Notorious will be produced by Biggie's managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts and Robert Teitel (Barbershop). Supposedly the project's previous director, Antoine Fuqua, had problems with the film being produced by people more knowledgeable about music than film, but new helmer George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) shouldn't have the same issues. Aside from the fact that Tillman's experienced producing partner (Teitel) is on board, the director hopefully understands the importance and benefit of working with so many people who knew Biggie. The actual script, written by Cheo Hodari Coker and Reggie Bock Bythewood (Get on the Bus), is based on Coker's book Unbelievable: The LIfe, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G. And as we learned last week, the part of Biggie will be cast with an unknown. According to the IMDb, other Biggie projects in the works include a made-for-cable movie titled Notorious, about the deaths of Biggie and Tupac, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone (!) and a new documentary titled Notorious B.I.G. Bigger Than Life.