Johnny Depp is set to investigate the murders of rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, with THR reporting that he has signed on to play Los Angeles police detective Russell Poole in Labyrinth from director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer).
The thriller is based upon Randall Sullivan’s lengthily-titled 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, which pretty much doubles as a synopsis.
The film will explore Poole’s investigations into the 1997 murder of Biggie, which led him to believe that a group of “gangsta cops in his own force were not only involved but were also tied to Death Row Records and the Bloods street gang”, and ultimately saw him going into early retirement after confrontations with the LAPD chief of police.
2016 hasn’t been too great for Depp; aside from his very public divorce from Amber Heard, his big summer release Alice Through the Looking Glass tanked at the box office. Both he and Disney will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes when he returns as Captain Jack Sparrow in next year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Originally published September 8, 2016. Updated October 24, 2022.
