It's a superfly morning today, bringing us news that a group of producers have purchased the rights to adapt Robert Beck's autobiography Pimp: The Story Of My Life.
The book, with more than five million copies shifted so far, is the second highest selling tome written by a black male after Alex Haley's Roots, which is illustrious company indeed. But we know what's at the top of your minds right now: Robert Beck is not a very pimp-sounding name. Funny you should think that, as his street pseudonym was Iceberg Slim, much more apt for the scene.
All kidding aside, Beck's story is an amazing one. Born in 1918 into poverty in Milwaukee, the book says he was astonishingly bright (an IQ of 175) and attended university for a short time before dropping out to become a pimp on the streets of Chicago at the ripe old age of 18. Over the next fifty years he rose in status and was imprisoned several times, before getting out of the game in early '60s, when he straightened up, moved to Los Angeles, and became an insecticide salesman. He wrote the book in 1969, and died in 1992.
**Pimp **has had many interested parties in Hollywood, including Ice Cube, Quincy Jones, and Pras from the Fugees all involved with various versions of the story, all of which were hampered by a lawsuit between Beck's estate and the book's publishers.
That dispute has now been settled, however, and the group of producers on this latest attempt - one of Entourage's producers, Rick Weiss, along with relative newbies Mitch Davis, Ryan Drexler and Andrew Left - now own the rights outright, so expect this one to get off of the ground.
Casting thoughts, anyone...?