K.T Simpson
A decade or so back, Hollywood tried to make rap star Eminem a movie star – much like they’d done with Ice Cube, Ice-T, and later, Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson. Yet despite a strong performance in the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile for director Curtis Hanson, the ‘Lose Yourself’ singer resisted the urge to put his name on a movie marquee on a regular basis.
Speaking to the BBC Sounds podcast (via Coming Soon), former Hollywood agent Kirk Ewing revealed that Eminem was even going to headline a feature based on the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise at one point.
“This was just after 3 [released], and I think at that point it was still in [Sam Houser, co-founder and president of Rockstar Games]’s mind that it might be something that they wanted to do.”
According to Ewing, the chart topper would’ve collaborated with late director Tony Scott (Unstoppable, Top Gun) on the film, likely scoring himself a cool wage for the gig.
“At that point, [Rockstar] withdrew from any conversation about making a film when they realized the media franchise they had was bigger than any movie that was going on at the time.”
Of the other movies Eminem was considered for at the time, and maybe even himself considered doing, was a Batman movie.
