An African-American journalist is suing the makers of All Eyez on Me, the Tupac biopic, alleging that the filmmakers used his work to write and inform the script, but didn’t got his permission or compensate him.
Kevin Powell, a former writer for Vibe magazine, is asking a judge to immediately stop the film from being played in theaters, as well as for a portion of the profits.
He says he noticed similarities to his work after he saw the film, the most damning, according to him, being a character in the movie named “Nigel,” which, he says, is a fake composite of a real gangster named “Haitian Jack,” whom he profiled in his article.
Further, he says, the film also features a journalist, played by Hill Harper, talking to Pac in prison, as Powell himself did.
The author and activist took to Facebook on Friday to tell his side of things:
Powell, the founder of youth-activist organization BK Nation, is currently working on a Tupac biography, according to TMZ.