Turf War Over Legal Rights to Tupac Story

Published by Jeff Leins on: February 19th, 2009

Morgan Creek has filed suit against the estate of slain rapper Tupac Shakur claiming they backed out of an agreement to sell his story rights.  Shakur died in 1996 in a shooting that was likely tied to the East Coast/West Coast hip hop feud at the time.

According to the complaint, a written contract was in place for life rights after November negotiations between the production company and Tupac’s mother.  Morgan Creek says they’re refusing to honor the original deal, while Amaru Entertainment (Mommy Tupac’s company) says no deal was ever made.

“There is no agreement with Morgan Creek, there never was, and there never will be,” said Amaru attorney Skip Miller, adding that the court filing is an attempt to force his client’s hand.  Anyone else think it’s weird that a guy named Skip is representing a hardcore gangster/rapper?

Apparently Amaru has been shopping the rights around to a variety of different studios and Paramount, Fox and others have passed due to Morgan Creek’s threats of litigation.  Technically, Morgan Creek doesn’t need the rights to make a story about the rap artist, but will definitely need written permission to include any of his songs in the biopic.

What is interesting about this story is that the talks supposedly broke down after Notorious, based on rival rapper Biggie Smalls, underperformed at the box office.  That film made $36 million for Fox Searchlight.

As much as I thought Notorious was sort of a lame grab for more blood money, I’ve been saying it would be interesting to see the other side of the story.  The Biggie movie was clearly biased to one side, so a rival film could be worth a look.  Oh well, maybe it will happen… maybe it won’t.  If the NiF rap music consultant is to be believed, then “Tupac is alive, man, and he’ll be back and better than ever.”  Now that would make a great movie.