Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson looks set to gain some heavyweight support on his next cop drama, with the news that Robert De Niro and Forrest Whitaker are likely to join him on **Freelancers.
Fiddy will play the son of a murdered NYPD officer, who gains the patronage of his father's former partner (De Niro) and joins his "rogue task force".
There's no word on Whitaker's potential role, but could it be the, by the sound of it, rather short-lived Fiddy Sr? Whitaker and Jackson were attached to play, respectively, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the Abel Ferrara adaptation that went south a few months ago, so if Whitaker does sign on for Freelancers, it'll see that team-up happen after all, albeit in rather different circumstances.
Jackson seems to have the wonder stuff when it comes to attracting co-stars: Bruce Willis and Ryan Philippe were somehow persuaded to join the woeful-looking Setup (all trailers for which seem to have been untimely ripp'd from the internet) and Ray Liotta is in Things Fall Apart. Goodfellas was a long time ago.
Freelancers is directed by Fiddy regular Jessy Terrero, who also made Soul Plane. It's due sometime next year.