In some distressing news it seems Paramount Pictures and MTV Films have signed Sean “Puffy” Combs to develop a heist action-comedy as a starring vehicle for himself.
The film is yet-to-be titled, but it will be set in Combs’ hometown of Miami during the Miami Grand Prix and will be focused on the fast-paced, multi-cultural side of the city.
Puffy told Variety, “This will definitely take a page out of all the great heist movies and return the favor by having two token white guys… And it will be sophisticated. It won’t be a hip-hop film with guys in do-rags because I’m always trying to break down people’s perceptions and barriers.”
Sorry, but I have to call bullsh*t on this one. Not on what he is trying to do, but the potential of this being good and “sophisticated.”
This is not a knock on the man called “Puffy” or “P-Diddy” or whatever he is accepting as a pseudonym for the time being, but it is just a reaction to so many unproven actors being given these major deals while so many actors that have proven themselves in smaller films sit on the sidelines.
This just reminds me of the 50 Cent starrer Locked and Loaded being helmed by Jim Sheridan for Paramount, a film in which Sam Jackson reportedly turned down since he felt working alongside an unproven actor such as 50 Cent is almost an insult to his abilities, and I couldn’t agree more.
I will not completely write this one off since Puffy did put in some work in Marc Forster‘s Monster’s Ball as well as in “A Raisin in the Sun” on Broadway, but I am very skeptical for now.
