The life and impact of Afeni Shakur will be brought to the big screen by longtime family friend Jasmine Guy and director and producer Jamal Joseph.
The duo will executive produce the project according to Variety. It will chronicle Shakur’s time with the Black Panther Party, highlighting the Apr. 2, 1969 incident where she and 20 other Black Panthers, known as the “Panther 21” were arrested and charged with conspiracy to bomb police stations in New York, through June 16, 1971, which was the day Tupac was born. The biopic will also chronicle her childhood and teenage years through flashbacks.
“Two of the Panthers absconded, the judge freaked out and Afeni got put back in jail. She was five months pregnant [with Tupac] and made a motion to get a glass of milk for her unborn child! She had a lot of self-confidence, and that’s our movie—it begins with the day she was arrested,” LaPolt shared with Variety.
Guy, who was a close friend to Tupac and Afeni, authored the 2005 biography Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary, has expressed her excitement about the project. “I was honored when Afeni asked me to author her biography,” she told the publication. “Now, I have the opportunity to honor her life and her legacy on the screen, and I am very excited to share her remarkable story this way.”
Joseph added, “Afeni Shakur lived a life of challenge, power, rebelliousness, genius, and beauty. This is an origin story of a fierce, sexy, trailblazing woman.”
Currently, the film treatment for Afeni is in the works as LaPolt and co. seek the right production company to take on the task
