50 Cent has announced that he has started developing a new TV series based on the Eminem biopic 8 Mile. Released back in 2002 to critical acclaim and box office success, 8 Mile was centered around a fictionalized version of Eminem named B-Rabbit, played by the rapper himself. The film followed B-Rabbit as he navigated the hardscrabble Detroit neighborhood he lived in, working in the blue collar sector while spending his free time building his rap career by attending rap battles. Eminem was even nominated for a few critics choice awards as a breakthrough performer, and the song "Lose Yourself" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
In an interview with cancelled movie adaptation of Grand Theft Auto, was developing the new 8 Mile television project with him, and that the pair have already started working towards making the idea a reality. 50 Cent continued on to say that he was going to try to emulate 8 Mile's success on the big screen with this new adaptation for television, teasing that the show was going to be "big," and implied that the massive success of his past shows, such as Power, its many spinoffs, and BMF, would be continued with the potential 8 Mile series if it gets the green light.
I’m gonna bring his 8 Mile to television... [The show is] gonna be big. I’m working. I ain’t got no duds. I’m battin’ a hundred, I’m battin’ a hundred... I think it should be there for his legacy, because if you don’t see… it’s important to me that they understand it... I wanna be able to show and offer a lot more details, things that you would say in an interview or different things that you’ve already used, that you put out there, and stuff like that. You’ll see those things kind of surface and the temperament of the characters.
Why 50 Cent's TV Shows Have Had So Much Success
While 50 Cent didn't have great success on the big screen in the past, the rapper has since enjoyed a string of hits in the realm of TV development. The first of his TV successes was Power, which had a very successful six-season run from 2014 to 2020. Since then, a new spin-off has been released each year, with Power Book II: Ghost coming out in late 2020, Power Book III: Raising Kanan being released in 2021, and Power Book IV: Force airing in 2022. BMF, which also airs on Starz, the network that has worked with 50 Cent on all of his TV projects, has shown that 50 Cent can find success even without the built-in audience the Power spin-offs have enjoyed.
One of the reasons for the success of these shows is that 50 Cent's name is still a big draw thanks to his acting ambitions, which landed him a role in the Expendables 4 movie, and his very strong social media presence. Probably the biggest reason for the success of the Power family of shows, however, is that the minds behind the series have shown themselves to be skilled and tireless marketers on social media platforms. They were able to create extra buzz with social media campaigns such as season 1's "Who Shot Ghost?", which was an homage to Dallas' classic 1980 cliffhanger, and with the Team Ghost vs. Team Tommy Twilight-style campaign that pitted the two main characters against one another.
According to Nielsen's social content ratings, those efforts along with many others like them contributed to Power garnering more social media interaction over its six-season run than several of its acclaimed competitors, including Empire, Fear The Walking Dead, and How To Get Away With Murder. The fact that 50 Cent's shows are some of the only ones filled with morally gray and layered Black characters also fills a void in the current TV landscape. With the success that 50 Cent has been having lately, including the announcement of a series of three horror movies co-produced with Eli Roth, the revival of 8 Mile in a TV format seems like it has a great chance of coming to fruition.
Source: BigBoyTV (via THR)