Interesting.....

The long search is over. Jamal "Gravy" Woolard will play Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. in 'Notorious", a biopic on the infamous rapper.

According to Variety, the story will follow Biggie "from his beginnings as a Brooklyn crack dealer to his rise to the top of the world of hip-hop." Though he only lived to the age of 24, there's still going to be a lot of ground to cover in that two hour movie. Angela Bassett will play Voletta Wallace, Biggie's mother. Derek Luke will play his friend/producer Sean "Diddy" Combs. Anthony Mackie will portray Biggie's hip-hop rival Tupac Shakur.

Newcomers Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Dennis White, and Julia Pace Mitchell round out the supporting cast.

George Tillman Jr. will helm Notorious from a screenplay by Cheo Hodari Coker and Reggie Rock Bythewood. Filming is set to start March 24 and take place in all five boroughs of New York. Fox Searchlight also has a date set up for the release: January 16th, 2009.

From IW: I don't know who this "Gravy" dude is, but Anthony Mackie as Tupac is not making it for me. He always seemed...how shall we say....a bit "sweet". Not that there's anything wrong with that, haha. At least Angela Bassett's mixing it up a bit....finally.

I'll let you make your own comments on this next one...I never really have any words when it comes to Bey. Idris seems to be continuing his 'crap-o-rama tour' tho. From Filmwad:

Beyonce Knowles, Ali Larter, and Idris Elba have been hired to star in Obsessed, a thriller for Screen Gems. According to Variety, "Elba [last seen in American Gangster] will play an asset manager who has a knockout wife (Knowles) and thriving career until a temp office worker (Larter) begins stalking him."

Television director Steve Shill is directing his first feature from a screenplay by David Loughery (Money Train, Star Trek V, Tom and Huck). Will Packer is producing along with Beyonce and her father Mathew Knowles. Production begins this summer.