My Blog: Eminem May Star In 'Random Acts Of Violence' Movie

Sonntag, 9. Januar 2011

Eminem May Star In 'Random Acts Of Violence' Movie

Rapper would play an ex-con fresh out of prison.
By Gil Kaufman

Eminem
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic

Any way you cut it, Eminem is on a roll. The rapper had the best-selling album of 2010 with Recovery, hit singles with "Love the Way You Lie" and "Not Afraid," a series of well-received stadium jams with Jay-Z and, oh yeah, 10 Grammy nominations.

And while he keeps his private life out of the papers and prefers not to make as many public appearances as he used to, fans might be seeing a lot more of him soon. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Slim Shady has plans to star in the crime thriller "Random Acts of Violence."

The movie, which would bring the Detroit rapper back to movie theaters more than nine years after he made his big-screen debut in the autobiographical hit "8 Mile," has been kicking around for more than four years as the script has undergone a number of rewrites and revisions. The latest draft centers on an ex-con who is fresh out of prison and trying to stay on the straight-and-narrow despite pressure from his pals to go back to a life of crime. He's also fighting off a simultaneous pull from the FBI to join forces with them to bring down the crime syndicate. Writer-director David Von Ancken ("Californication") is expected to direct.

While a spokesperson for Em could not be reached for comment at press time to confirm the report, if true it would be the second film the reclusive rapper is rumored to be circling.

Last month, Deadline reported that Eminem is in line to star in the DreamWorks boxing drama "Southpaw," in which he would play a "fast-rising welterweight boxer who brawls his way to the title, only to see his world crash down around him due to tragedy."

Both films have the underdog quality that seems custom-made for the scrappy MC who rose up from the trailer parks of Michigan in the late 1990s to worldwide fame and fortune thanks to his tenacity and impressive freestyle skills.

Like "Random Acts of Violence," the script for "Southpaw" has been knocking around for a few years, but it was a meeting with Em and his team that helped kick it into gear.

"I took meetings with Marshall's producing partners over the past seven years, looking for something to do together," said "Sons of Anarchy" creator/producer Kurt Sutter, who is writing the "Southpaw" script. "I know he's very selective and doesn't do a lot. But he shared so much of his personal struggle in this raw and very honest album [Recovery], one that I connected with on a lot of levels. He is very interested in the boxing genre, and it seemed like an apt metaphor, because his own life has been a brawl."

Sutter described the film as a continuation of sorts of the "8 Mile" story, which brought both critical acclaim for Eminem and a Best Song Oscar for "Lose Yourself." There's no word yet on when the movie may start filming or when it will be released.

The roles would will mark a step forward in an acting career that has had more promise than product over the past few years. In 2006, Eminem was tied to star in a remake of the 1950s TV drama "Have Gun — Will Travel," but that modernized bounty-hunter tale never got off the ground.

What kind of movie role would you like to see Eminem take on? Talk about it in the comments.

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