Forest Whitaker’s already busy schedule just got even busier, as Deadline reports that he has signed on to star alongside Johnny Depp in LAbyrinth, an upcoming thriller which follows the investigation into the 1996 and 1997 murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, respectively.
Depp has been attached to the project since September and will supposedly portray Russell Poole, the real-life Los Angeles police detective who took on the case and looked for answers until his untimely death in 2015. The outlet claims that Whitaker will play a journalist that teams up with Poole; the two are set on a path that leaves them butting heads with cops, but “determined to find the truth” and “seek redemption.”
Between now and 2019, Whitaker will appear in several high-profile movies, perhaps the most notable of which being Lucasfilm’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Marvel’s Black Panther. Recently, Whitaker appeared in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, which had a successful first weekend at the box office.
LAbryrith certainly won’t be a biopic about the careers of Shakur and Smalls (Christopher Wallace), but both, however, have received the biopic treatment. Shakur’s biopic, All Eyez on Me is slated to hit theaters next year, while Wallace’s life story was told in the 2009 film Notorious.
The Lincoln Lawyer and Runner, Runner director Brad Furman will direct the film. Writer Christian Contreras adapted Randall Sullivan’s book Labyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records’ Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal for the screen.
Originally published November 17, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
