Despite rumours of Eminem signing up for Southpaw, a film about the rise, fall and rise again of a pugilist, we still have not seen him on screen since his acclaimed work on 8 Mile. Eminem is still yet to commit to Southpaw and it appears he may now have to choose between that and a new project, Random Acts Of Violence.
Originally conceived as a loose adaptation of Grand Theft Auto (loose enough to not have to pay for the adaptation rights), RAOV has now been tweaked and finessed into the following:-
An ex-con smarter than his past is fresh out of prison and trying to stay legit — but his efforts are complicated by his old gang who wants him back on the job. So, too, does the FBI, which hopes he’ll wear a wire and bring down the crime syndicate. The ex-con, meanwhile, tries to play both sides against each other long enough to exact revenge against those — on both sides of the law — who sent him to prison in the first place.
Although that sounds a little predictable and derivative as far as it goes, that is not to say that it won’t eventually rise above initially low expectations. Eminem sounds like a good fit for an ex-con trying to fend off the attentions of cops and crooks and given his relative lack of big-screen experience he should come relatively cheap, yet still with a lot of pull with cinema audiences. David Von Ancken has been brought in as writer and director, off the back of Seraphim Falls and TV work on CSI:NY, Cold Case and Californication. His latest draft of the script will get one more pass by a different writer while he continues with his TV work, with a date for commencing production being eyed for later this year.
Given his undoubted acting ability and general charisma, it would be good to see Eminem on screen again as soon as possible, whether it will be as an ex-con or boxer, we will see.
Source: Vulture.
