Eminem Plans a Return to the Big Screen, But Can He Forge a Successful Acting Career?

Nine years after his electrifying performance in the semi-autobiographical '8 Mile,' Eminem is planning his return to film in the upcoming thriller 'Random Acts of Violence.'

The reclusive rapper, whose 2010 album 'Recovery' was the best-selling album of the year, continues to work his way back into the national consciousness with a series of upcoming film roles. In addition to 'Violence,' the rapper is currently in production on the 3-D horror film 'Shady Talez' and the boxing-themed drama 'Southpaw.'

But as fans of both hip-hop and film know, the confluence of emcees and movies is not always the best fit. For every Mos Def in 'The Woodsman,' there's DMX in 'Cradle 2 the Grave.' For every Ludacris in 'Crash,' there's, well, Ludacris in 'Fred Claus.'

"I think it's a good role for Eminem," says Jake Paine, editor-in-chief of influential hip-hop website HipHopDX.com. "But I think we're all skeptical about 'rapper movies.' Still, Eminem, more than almost anybody in the last 10 years, has the potential to follow in the Fresh Prince [Will Smith] or Marky Mark's [Mark Wahlberg] ascent to legitimate acting."

Smith and Wahlberg have long solidified their presences in Hollywood and shed -- or matured, depending on your point of view -- their former careers. But both had all but retired from hip-hop when their acting careers began. (Smith would later reboot his musical career as a solo artist in 1997, but only after firmly establishing his acting career.) Juggling music and acting simultaneously is a much more difficult endeavor.

"I thought it was about time," admits Mecca, editor-at-large of hip-hop magazine The Source. "It's all he needed to complete a successful return. The script and storyline seem strong and expanding his resume with films is a great look."

According to Vulture, 'Random Acts of Violence' began as the cinematic equivalent to 'Grand Theft Auto,' the ultraviolent video game that emerged as one of the decade's most popular games. But 20th Century Fox shifted tone and brought in 'Californication' director David Von Ancken, who ditched the cars and created "a thriller more akin to 'The Town' or 'The Departed.'" The rapper will play an ex-con torn between his past partners in crime and the FBI agents hoping he'll wear a wire to bring them down.

The Troubled Flight of the 'Green Hornet' to Screen

What’s the buzz on “The Green Hornet”? Enough to make Michel Gondry as mad as one. After the director of the new action-comedy about a masked crime fighter, a cool car and a high-kicking sidekick saw fans stampeding out of the movie’s Q&A panel at Comic-Con International this summer, Gondry lit into them with a vengeance not unlike that of the hero himself.

“Their values are Fascistic,” he seethed to the British newspaper The Guardian. “When you step into this genre, they feel it belongs to them. They want you to conform, or they won’t like you. They want the conventional. But it’s fine. The movie’s been doing very well, I think, whenever we’ve screened it to normal people.”

“Normal people” will have a chance to judge for themselves Friday, when this unconventional slacker-dude take on the character opens in theaters. Star and co-writer Seth Rogen, best known for his Judd Apatow comedies, becomes the latest in a line of Green Hornets stretching from 1930s radio to a fondly remembered, 1960s TV series starring Van Williams as Britt Reid, aka the Green Hornet, and a then-unknown Bruce Lee as his martial-artist sidekick, Kato. The show made future superstar Lee a household name, introduced the catchphrase “Let’s roll, Kato!” and gave us one of television’s most bravura instrumental themes — trumpeter Al Hirt’s rapid-fire rendition of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Flight of the Bumblebee.”

The series was also memorable for the gadget-packed Black Beauty, a customized 1966 Chrysler Imperial that outdid James Bond’s Aston Martin. This Swiss Army knife of a car had rocket launchers that swiveled in and out of sight, night-vision headlights, an exhaust device that spread ice over roads, rear-wheel brushes to sweep away tire tracks and lots more. The new movie used 29 1964-66 Imperials for all the various shots and stunts in an effort to re-create that coolness.

And coolness is key, given the sleek and finely tailored, serious and steely-eyed Green Hornet, who, in his topcoat and fedora, was the Don Draper of crime fighters. “He was very stylish,” remembers Tim Lucas, editor-publisher of the 20-year-old genre-fiction magazine Video Watchdog and a lecturer on popular culture. “He had the Hornet’s Sting” — a science-fiction-y sound wave gun — “and that fabulous car, which, to me is even more beautiful than the Batmobile.”

The new film’s gadgets, stunts and action may well compensate for all the pre-release qualms fans have felt over doughy comic actor Rogen in the title role. Rogen, perhaps wisely in that context, is keeping a relatively low profile in terms of promoting the picture, declining to speak to Newsday, even though he is also one of the film’s executive producers. Likewise not speaking are co-screenwriter Evan Goldberg and beleaguered director Gondry — all of whom saw their movie banished from a Dec. 22 holiday slot to the Siberia of January.

“Executives at Sony have insisted the latest move was made solely in order to secure more time to convert to 3-D,” wrote analyst Ray Subers of BoxOfficeMojo.com, “but moving out of a prime December spot to January doesn’t necessarily display a bid of confidence.”

It was the sixth time the movie was moved — it was originally slated for summer 2009 — and the latest setback in a long slog to bring it to the screen. The original conception in 1993, when Universal Pictures held the rights, starred George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee, who had played Bruce Lee (no relation) in that year’s “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.” After Clooney left in 1995, the movie’s current director, Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), was hired and spent a year and a half working on a script with “RoboCop” co-writer Edward Neumeier. Mark Wahlberg was being considered for the lead. But the project languished and Gondry left.

Action star Jet Li breathed new life into the picture when he signed on as Kato in 2000. Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (“The Usual Suspects”) started writing a script. But “The Green Hornet” did not get greenlit, and Universal cut its losses in 2001.

Miramax next optioned the rights, and in 2004 the indie studio hired cult filmmaker Kevin Smith, who wanted Jake Gyllenhaal to star. But by early 2006, that project was dead.

Finally, producer Neal Moritz (“The Fast and the Furious” franchise) optioned the rights for the current Columbia Pictures flick. Rogen was aboard by July 2007, and Hong Kong action star-director Stephen Chow (“Kung Fu Hustle”) joined as co-star and director in late 2008. He bowed out as the latter over creative differences, replaced by Gondry in early 2009. Chow later abandoned the Kato role, which was taken over by heavily accented Asian singer-actor Jay Chou. Nicolas Cage came close to playing the film’s criminal kingpin, but talks broke off and Christoph Waltz signed on.

Consistent through all this has been Rogen’s vision of the Green Hornet. “He’s just, like, a rich, bored dude,” the “Pineapple Express” star said in 2007, “who has decided to become a superhero. ... He’s a billionaire and he’s a playboy, but he’s really, like, a normal guy who really has no real reason to be the Green Hornet, other than he really wants to be a superhero, which I really relate to.”

Whether “normal people” will as well, we’ll see. Let’s roll, Kato.

———

A GREEN HORNET TIMELINE

JAN. 31, 1936: “The Green Hornet” debuts on Detroit radio station WXYZ, created by station co-owner and managing partner George W. Trendle and writer Fran Striker, with input from director James Jewell.

APRIL 12, 1938: Radio show goes national, on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Continues on successor networks through Sept. 8, 1950. Future “60 Minutes” newsman Mike Wallace is one of the announcers during the show’s long run.

JAN. 9, 1940: Universal releases 13-chapter serial “The Green Hornet.” A 15-chapter sequel follows on Jan. 4, 1941. Future TV and film star Keye Luke plays Kato in both.

DECEMBER 1940: Helnit Publishing Co.‘s “Green Hornet Comics” No. 1-6 (cover dates Dec. 1940-Aug. 1941) becomes the first of several comic book series, including Harvey’s “Green Hornet Comics” (1942-47), Gold Key’s “The Green Hornet” (1967), Now Comics’ “The Green Hornet” and several spinoffs (1990-1993) and Dynamite Entertainment’s “Green Hornet” and spinoffs (2010).

SEPT. 10-DEC. 5, 1952: Radio show briefly returns.

SEPT. 9, 1966-JULY 14, 1967: ABC-TV series “The Green Hornet” airs. (Catch all 26 episodes Tuesday from 10 a.m.- 11 p.m. on Syfy.)

JAN. 14, 2011: Columbia Pictures releases “The Green Hornet.”

'Fela!' is Being Readied for the Big Screen

The sumptuous Afro-beat rhythms of "Fela!" may have died down on Broadway, but his beat goes on elsewhere.

The frenetic musical biography of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti will be broadcast across the globe this week from London, the first in a series of curated vinyl box sets of his music that is due out Feb. 1, and there's an international tour set for late spring that could even bring the show to the birthplace of the musician.

"I think the man's story still has a lot of power. It has the power to inspire people and to turn some people off," says Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones, the director and choreographer of "Fela!"

The show earned three Tonys as well as nominations for best musical and best actor before closing Jan. 2 at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre following a 14-month run. A version of the musical began running in London's West End in November.

Now it prepares for a close-up: National Theatre Live is to broadcast Thursday's performance by satellite from the West End's Olivier Theatre to over 360 locations in more than 20 places, including Australia, South Africa, across western Europe, Canada and about 100 screens in the U.S.

The show puts Fela at center stage. It's true to his strident messages of human rights, anti-corruption and individual empowerment, as well as his often complicated, raunchy and chauvinistic sides.

Jones, who will be on hand in London for a rehearsal and for the live broadcast, says he wasn't about to hand over his baby to another set of producers without making certain it was in the right hands.

"I wanted to make sure that they understood that they're not only dealing with a product, but they're dealing with something that represents a lot to a lot of people," he says.

The live broadcast will offer moviegoers entertainment at a fraction of the price for a live Broadway ticket. (In some places it will be taped and shown later where the time zone difference is dramatic or theater schedules don't mesh.)

"This is one of the great live, theatrical spectacles and performance pieces that have come by," says Stephen Hendel, who co-conceived and produced the show. "It's got amazing music and dance and colors and costumes and performance and visuals. It is a very, very stimulating show. It will translate beautifully in the cinema."

The London cast will be unchanged and includes Sahr Ngaujah, who earned a Tony nomination in the title role on Broadway and is reprising his part in England. Nine cameras will capture the show, which spills into the wings and the audience.

"Everybody should be prepared that day to ignore the camera if they can or play to the camera as they would to a person," says Jones. "They're going to be swept up in a learning curve as well."

The broadcast of "Fela!" is part of The National Theatre Live's second season, which will continue in February with the Donmar Warehouse's production of "King Lear," directed by Michael Grandage and starring Derek Jacobi. Organizers say some 250,000 people have seen a National Theatre Live broadcast this season.

Fela's music is also being rereleased at a frantic pace. Last year, 34 of his albums came out and a final set of seven CDs is due this month. The Roots' ?uestlove also has picked out a vinyl box set of six albums that is available next month from Knitting Factory Records.

And plans are under way to tour "Fela!" elsewhere as well, even taking it to Lagos, Nigeria, the birthplace of Fela, who was one of the staunchest critics of the nation's business elite and military rulers until his death in 1997. Producers say details are still being discussed.

"Fela!" originally opened off-Broadway and won raves for its energetic dancing and infectious music — a fusion of jazz, R&B, rock and soul music — all culled from Kuti's catalog. The Broadway show, co-produced by Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, attracted the likes of Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Madonna.

Jones, who won a Tony for choreographing "Spring Awakening" and another for "Fela!" acknowledges he's a little nervous as he helps ready the show for a live broadcast that will capture his creation on film.

"We just have to be really ready for that digital eye to freeze us in history," he says. "It's out of my hands now. It's in the hands of the digital God."