Idris Elba is rumored to be the choice to play Tupac Shakur in the hopefully upcoming biopic that’s suffered from delays and legal battles, but now has a focused director in the legendary John Singleton to helm the flick.
But it’s the mention of Idris Elba that has some at ContactMusic up in arms, and so much so, they’ve taken up a poll to ask who should play the legendary Oakland rapper instead of Elba.
But what the publication forgets is that the search for a black actor to play Tupac has been so hard, it’s placed the project in a tailspin. It’s time to set a course and get the movie done.
And that’s why I’m casting a vote for Idris Elba.
The simple reason I say Idris Elba’s an excellent choice is he’s currently the one actor that ranks higher in buzz and box-office than any other one mentioned outside of Anthony Mackie. Plus, Mr. Elba’s a rapper and DJ in the UK, and has eagerly showed off his talent in that area of late.
Plus, and this gets back to the issue of buzz, Idris Elba’s Google Trends ranking is epic. What’s Google Trneds? It’s an online device that measures the intensity of search conducted on a subject using Google. In this case, Idris Elba has no peer among the other great names floated to play Tupac. Let’s take Anthony Mackie.
Anthony Mackie played Tupac Shakur in the 2008 movie Notorious, and did an excellent job. But his name would not lend the same international credibility to the new movie, and Google Trends shows why. The chart below shows that Elba towers over Anthony Mackie in a side-by-side comparison and as much as 100 for Elba, and 6 for Mackie.
And Elba’s Google Trends ranking is so high that it’s competitive with that for Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, with Anthony Mackie barely visible. Take a look:
The reason for this is Mr. Mackie has not had a role where he was the lead actor in the movie and the movie scored big in buzz and at the box office. Moreover, he’s not been the lead actor in a television show that was hugely popular. Elba, by contrast, played Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom and did so to the point of being nominated for several awards last year, including the Golden Globes for the Best Actor prize that went to Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club.
Anthony Mackie is an excellent actor, but in a comparison with Idris Elba, the later’s the better choice. The one rub may be compensation. Elba’s so popular that the price could be higher than the producers are willing to pay. On the other hand, Elba may just take it to prove to everyone that he could do Tupac, and well.
Stay tuned.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.