![]() ![]() We never had the financial means or stature to get the rights to the LAbyrinth book. ![]() (Sylvester) Stallone had it for a minute. LAbyrinth had been optioned by a major studio with major stars. I’m beginning to come into my own, so I guess, for me, that’s the connective tissue.ĭawson: How long ago did the process of bringing the film to the screen begin?įurman: Don Sikorski who was a dear friend of mine-we played college basketball at NYU-he became a hard-hitting investigative journalist and he brought me LAbyrinth as well as The Infiltrator book many years ago. It’s taken me a lot of years, time, growth and maturation to figure it out. To step into the shoes and the deep responsibility to tell this story was a bit of a graduation for me into where I wanted to go as a filmmaker, and the type of stories I wanted to tell. As a result of that, the impact and the gravity and the loss on me, as an individual and on the world, was huge. I remember exactly where I was when I heard they were murdered. I grew up a huge fan of Biggie and Tupac. My point is, if somebody had said to me then, “You’re going to get an opportunity to go to Hollywood and make a movie,” I would have thought that was the coolest thing ever.Īs we grow, mature, evolve and learn-I didn’t understand how much we are as an individual as a part of our filmmaking and it becomes part of the DNA in the storytelling. I really studied filmmakers from all around the world. Sitting at his home with vintage LPs stacked on shelves behind him-a collection bequeathed to him by a beloved departed cousin who had been a deejay-Furman is pleased that his long-gestating project is finally about to be accessible to those, like him, who were fans of the groundbreaking rapper and touched by the tragedy of his violent death, and perhaps instigate a reopening of the unsolved case.Īngela Dawson: What’s the connection between your films like The Lincoln Lawyer, The Infiltrator and now City Of Lies?īrad Furman: Maybe a personal growth and maturity to understanding myself and the stories I want to tell. I remember seeing Jim Gillespie’s I Know What You Did Last Summer and thinking how much fun it was. The crime drama isn’t so much about the lives of Biggie or Tupac (who are only seen in shadows and brief glimpses in the film), or even the so-called East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry that was constructed by the media, but about one man’s obsession with getting to the truth, and the price he paid-the loss of his career and family-because of it. It finally was released in theaters in March and will be available to an even broader audience via Digital platforms and On Demand Friday April 9, distributed through Saban Films. ![]() Though he eventually left the department, Poole continued to investigate the links, but never got anywhere.įor various reasons, including the shuttering of its original film distributor and litigation involving an alleged assault between the film’s star and a crew member, City Of Lies was shelved for three years. At the time, LAPD brass were still attempting to rehabilitate the department’s tarnished public image following the Rodney King beating, the Rampart division scandal and other embarrassing incidents involving dirty cops that came to light in the early 1990s.įurman’s City Of Lies recounts Poole’s hypothesis that the undercover cop shot had moonlighted as muscle for infamous rap producer and Death Row Records founder Suge Knight. This incident plays out in a thrilling opening sequence in City Of Lies. Poole had developed a theory about Biggie’s murder connecting the LAPD and a cover up while he was investigating a separate case involving the shooting death of an undercover officer by another officer. Despite having only a modest budget for the crime drama, which focuses on the investigation rather than the lives of the famed rappers, Furman and his producing partners landed three-time Oscar nominee Johnny Depp for the lead role of Russell Poole, a veteran LAPD detective. ![]()
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