Fox Searchlight has acquired rights to the story about the lifeand death of Christopher Wallace, better known to millions of fans as theinfamous rapper Notorious B.I.G.

Notorious B.I.G.'s mother Voletta Wallace will produce the projectalong with the late star's former music managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts.

Antoine Fuqua is in talks to direct and Cheo Hodari Coker, aformer journalist who was the last person to interview the star before he diedand wrote the biography Unbelievable: The Life, Death, And Afterlife Of TheNotorious B.I.G., willwrite the screenplay.

Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down after leaving a late-night LosAngeles party in 1997 at the age of 24.

His family filed a lawsuit claiming he was murdered after acorrupt police office arranged the killing at the behest of Death Row Recordsmogul Marion Knight. A federal judge declared a mistrial in the wrongful deathcase earlier this month.

"Biggie's life is a unique human story of trials, triumphs andtragedies that also chronicles modern popular culture," Fox Searchlightpresident Peter Rice said. "We are thrilled to be a part of bringing this movieto the big screen."

"There have been so many documentaries about Biggie the rapper butnobody knows Christopher the human being," Wallace said.

"He was somebody with feelings, somebody with a heart. Christopherwas a son, a father and a good friend. He had so much genuine love for people.It's time for people to know the real him."

The deal was brokered by Fox Searchlight executive vice presidentJoseph De Marco and Matthew Middleton on behalf of Wallace, Barrow and Pitts.

Fox Searchlight director of production Zola Mashariki grew up inthe same neighborhood as Biggie and was instrumental in bringing the project tothe studio.

Mashariki and Claudia Lewis,the studio's executive vice president of production, will oversee the project.

Topics