50 Cent in talks to start production company with Antoine Fuqua

Rapper/actor/producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is in talks to start a new production company in partnership with director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Brooklyn’s Finest). “He and I are developing a company together,” Jackson told press last week.

Jackson he would also like to work with Oliver Stone and McG, both of whom he has met with in recent months.

He noted he still hoped to one day work with Abel Ferrara on their currently stalled Jekyll and Hyde project.

Jackson already runs his own Cheetah Vision Films in partnership with producer Randall Emmett, and the company last year secured $200m in funding for a slate of 10 films (all to have domestic deals with Lionsgate). He said he expected most of those films to be in the “action drama genre.”

The first of those 10 is Mike Gunther’s Set Up, a revenge thriller starring Jackson, Bruce Willis and Ryan Phillippe (Lionsgate has US, UK and Canada with Hannibal Pictures on board for the rest of the world). The second film will be Jessy Terrero’s police thriller Freelancers which stars Jackson along with Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker.

Jackson was speaking at the second annual Aruba International Film Festival, where he presented his new film Things Fall Apart. Mario Van Peebles directs the story of an NFL-bound football player (played by Jackson) whose life crumbles when he is diagnosed with cancer. Jackson also produces (alongside Randall Emmett) and co-wrote the original screenplay with Brian Miller. The cast also features Ray Liotta, Van Peebles and Lynn Whitfield.

Jackson invested $2m of his own money into the financing of the pet project, inspired by his friend’s battle with cancer. Things Fall Apart isn’t just about illness, Jackson noted. “I think the film is about the anticipation of success and the disappointment [when it doesn’t happen], and about family values.” He lost 60 pounds in a tough physical transformation to play the lead role.

Things Fall Apart will get a straight to DVD release in the US; Hannibal Pictures is handling international rights.

Jackson’s past films as an actor include Home Of The Brave, Righteous Kill and Jim Sheridan’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’.