When the producers of the movie Righteous Kill, which stars Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and 50 Cent, were trying to sell the film to major studios, they relied heavily on 50 Cent’s urban appeal to make the film more attractive to buyers. This included initial movie posters that featured DeNiro, Pacino and 50 Cent together, press leaks that portrayed 50 Cent as “one of the guys” with DeNiro and Pacino and a sales reel that showed 50 Cent as a club owner who assists in solving the murder case (which was quickly erased from the internet). This was an attempt by the producers to use 50 Cent to “young-up” the potential audience and reach the much coveted “urban” demographic.
But now that the film has been bought by a major studio and is set for release on September 12th, any semblance of 50 Cent in this movie has been erased. The new movie poster just features the two stars Pacino and De Niro, the new movie trailer (below) and the TV spots completley cut out all of 50 Cent’s scenes and even the website has no reference to Mr. Curtis Jackson at all. Why the case of the disappearing 50 Cent? The obvious reason would be that Curtis is small-time in comparison to the big stars of Pacino and DeNiro and that the focus should righfully be on the two of them.
However, our WoooHa, Inc. sources reveal that the real reason the studio cut Curtis out of the campaign is because their research and exit poll information showed that 50 actually was not the urban or young demographic box office draw they were hoping for. 50 basically can’t draw in the core demographic that used to buy his albums by the millions. The box office let down of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ should have been a hint of things to come.
It’s no secret in the music world that 50 Cent has lost some mainstream appeal, but in the film world you don’t necessarily need multi-platinum albums to have a successfull film career (Common, Mos Def, etc.) you just need to appeal to the urban demo. 50 clearly is losing that appeal. Now that the secret is out in Hollywood though, how will this affect Curtis’ long-term acting career? We shall see in his next movie Streets of Blood. And of course if his film career doesn’t do well, 50 can always fall back on his Vitamin Water, video games and his deodorant spray. 50 will be just fine. For now enjoy these two exclusive pics of 50 from the movie Righteous Kill and the current trailer.
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