While All Eyez on Me, the biopic of prolific, slain rapper Tupac Shakur, was mostly a hit with fans, the film has been derided by critics, and its authenticity has been questioned by both friends of the late rapper and hip-hop heavyweight. And on Friday, former Vibe journalist Kevin Powell filed a federal lawsuit against Morgan Creek, Lionsgate, and the producers and writers of the film for copyright infringement.
Powell, in the suit, admits to having concocted a “made-up character” in his articles; a figure with the same name appears in All Eyez on Me.
“While some of the content in these articles was factual, some portions of the article were changed or embellished,” reads the suit, filed on Friday in a US district court in New York. In question is the film’s alleged usage of a series of interviews the activist and writer conducted while Shakur was behind bars for sexual assault.
Powell’s meetings with Shakur were the basis of several Vibe features in the 1990s, including the rapper’s jailhouse confessional. Claiming that significant portions of All Eyez on Me were based on his interviews, Powell is asking a judge to have the Lionsgate film pulled from theatres and is seeking an unspecified amount to be determined by a jury.
Since its release last week, the film has grossed more than $32 million (Dh117.5 million) domestically.
Powell has previously said he needed to leave details regarding the rapper out of his reporting, as well as change names to protect the artist. Part of the basis of his suit is the film’s inclusion of a character named ‘Nigel’, whom Powell created as a composite of a real person named Haitian Jack. The lawsuit addresses other alleged similarities.
Powell argues that a bulk of the film appears to be based on his jailhouse interviews with the artist.
In the film, the interviewer, portrayed by actor Hill Harper, is never given a name. Representatives for the film have not yet responded to requests for comment.
In 2011, Morgan Creek announced it had teamed with Emmett Furla Oasis Films to co-finance and co-produce the film, with Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Magnificent Seven) attached to direct.
The filmed aimed to chronicle Shakur’s rise as a rapper and actor, his legal troubles, his stint at Death Row Records and the 1996 drive-by shooting that claimed his life at age 25, which came at the height of the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry. His slaying, like that of peer Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G.), remains unsolved.
