Snoop Doggs story is one step closer to the big screen as director Allen Hughes confirmed the Universal biopic about the rapper is set to begin production imminently.
Thats next. Were starting this summer. Im so excited, Hughes told Variety on Tuesday night at the premiere of his upcoming FX docuseries Dear Mama, which chronicles the lives of Tupac Shakur and his mother, Afeni Shakur.
Hughes an Emmy and Peabody award nominee whose filmography includes Menace II Society, Dead Presidents, The Book of Eli and The Defiant Ones will direct the yet-to-be-titled Snoop Dogg biopic. Announced in November, the Universal movie is the first film produced by Death Row Pictures, following Snoops acquisition of Death Row Records in 2022.
He surprised me with that biopic, Hughes said of signing on to the film, which is billed as the definitive take on Snoops life and career. I cant wait to go back to the hood, and do a hood story that becomes inspirational. Thats what I get from him.
Turning around to look at the rapper, who was posing for photographers outside the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles with his wife Shante Broadus and their sons Cordell and Corde, Hughes continued: Whos more beloved than him in the world? Hes got such a special energy and I cant wait to do it.
But whos playing Snoop? Thats the million dollar question, Hughes added, joking, Itll probably be a Brit.
Snoop also shared his excitement for the film, with a script in the works from Joe Robert Cole, co-writer of both Black Panther films.
With the biopic, Im looking forward to people seeing this right here, this love story, Snoop said, hugging his wife Broadus closely. To see the love that I have for my music career. The people that have inspired me to love. Just watching it all unfold. Coming to a theater near you.
Corde Broadus, Shante Broadus, Snoop Dogg, Allen Hughes and Cordell Broadus at the premiere of Dear Mama. Gilbert Flores for Variety For now, both Hughes and Snoop are focused on Dear Mama, which underlines how Afeni Shakurs experiences as a Black Panther Party leader and activist intertwined with her son Tupacs path to becoming one of the most influential rappers of all time. Snoop participated in the documentary, which debuts Friday on FX, sitting for a series of interviews reminiscing about his relationship with Tupac, who was his close friend and collaborator until his 1996 murder. Tupac was 25 years old.
It meant the world because I had a relationship with both of them, Snoop said of sitting down with Hughes for the project. To be able to give my input on the type of people they were and what they meant to me, how they should be celebrated. Its a beautiful thing to be exposing this to the limelight. To keep his spirit alive. To keep her spirit alive. Thats what this is all about.
In a addition to Snoop, the project also features interviews with close family and friends including Glo Cox (Afenis sister and Tupacs aunt), Mutulu (Tupacs stepfather) and fellow Black Panther leader Jamal Joseph (who executive produced the project). The doc also includes Tupacs musical contemporaries like Dr. Dre, Digital Undergrounds Money-B and Chopmaster J.
For Hughes, the project presented an opportunity to come to terms with his own complicated relationship with Tupac, which began in the early 90s when he and his brother Albert directed the music video for the rappers breakout song Trapped and fractured after an altercation in 1994.
I didnt understand Tupac the way I wanted to understand Tupac, Hughes said, explaining how he approached the production given his personal ties. I was raised by a feminist, activist, single mother, so I said, If I can find a way, through his mothers narrative, to discover him, and make it a dual narrative, then Im in. And the estate agreed, the family agreed and the rest is history.
The five-part docuseries debuted at TIFF and its first two episodes officially launch on FX on Friday, April 21, streaming next day on Hulu.
Allen Hughes, Glo Cox and Jimmy Iovine at the premiere of Dear Mama. Gilbert Flores for Variety