A few years after being savagely destroyed by Walk Hard, the music biopic genre is surging back to life. The N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton was popular and critically acclaimed, the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me will be released very shortly, and now Deadline is reporting that Lionsgate is “moving quickly” on The Book Of Luke, a movie about 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell. Deadline suggests that the movie might touch on the legal battle surrounding 2 Live Crew’s take on Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” which involves Campbell fighting Orbison’s record label all the way to the Supreme Court over his right to release a parody of the original song. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in Campbell’s favor, setting a precedent for allowing existing songs to be sampled for parodies.
The Book Of Luke is based on Cambell’s similarly named memoir, and it’s being written by Craig A. Williams. R.J. Cyler, who recently played the Blue Ranger in the Power Rangers movie, will star.