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While the hunt is still on for their leading Thug Life actor, the forthcoming biopic on the life, death and times in between Tupac Shakur’s life has gotten its rights licensed out by Open Road Films.

The burgeoning Hollywood company is responsible for box-office draws such as Justin Bieber’s Believe and the inevitable ticket winner A Haunted House 2, so they’re sparing no expenses for rap’s greatest martyr. They have already committed to have it screened at 2K theaters.

Longtime Tupac aficionado, John Singleton is also the film’s director.

Reports Deadline:

The film is being produced and financed by Morgan Creek Productions and Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films. The deal was set by Open Road CEO Tom Ortenberg, Morgan Creek chairman and CEO James G. Robinson, Program Pictures’ L.T. Hutton and Emmtt/Furla/Oasis Films principals Randall Emmett and George Furla. It’s a reunion of sorts for Singleton and Shakur, as Singleton directed him as an actor in the 1993 film Poetic Justice.

Open Road has committed to a wide-screen release of at least 2000 theaters. This film has been long in the making, but if anything Tupac is bigger than ever, based on his popularity and how well his music sells.

Producers are Robinson, David Robinson, Hutton, Emmett, Furla and Singleton and the executive producers are Tupac’s mom Afeni Shakur, Ortenberg and Peter Lawson. The casting will start shortly, for a late summer production start in Atlanta, LA and New York.

The film also has an official name. Simply titled Tupac.

Photo: WENN