50 Cent Grinds Out $200 Million 10-Flick Movie Deal

Entertainment mogul 50 Cent has reportedly negotiated a $200 million dollar agreement with Grindstone Entertainment/Lionsgate to release a series of ten films featuring the star.

Details on the contract have begun circulating the Internet.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Randall Emmett‘s Cheetah Vision and George Furla‘s Hedge Fund Film Partners are teaming on a 10-picture deal that’s backed by a $200 million fund. Grindstone Entertainment/Lionsgate will release the films. First film under the deal is the Curtis Jackson-toplined “Set Up,” written and directed by Mike Gunther. Paul Walker is in talks to star opposite Jackson in the heist actioner, which begins shooting next month and is budgeted at $20 million. “Set Up” revolves around a group of friends who are catapulted into the middle of a diamond heist turned deadly. Casting is under way for the other roles. Hannibal Pictures is handling international sales. (Variety)

Cheetah Vision’s Emmett also spoke on his confidence toward working with 50.

“The thing about ’50 Cent’ is that, just like in his music career, he isn’t someone who sits around and waits for things to get done. He came to me and said, ‘How do we move quicker on projects?’ With this new fund, we are able to do that,” Emmett said. (Statement)

Earlier this year, 50 talked about the backlash he has received for some of his films being released straight-to-DVD.

“They’ll spend a $120 million on a film or a whole bunch of money making a film and then a whole bunch of money promoting it a year before it actually comes out and the money they get back intheaters is just the money they spent,” 50 explained in an interview. “And then it goes straight-to-dvd and everything is profit there. Some of the movies I’ve done recently, I was financing and I’ve already seen a 60 percent return on what I’ve [been] involved with. They don’t understand, they’re looking at it and going, ‘Well, it went straight-to-dvd,’ and they don’t realize I’m gonna get another $800,000 off each one of these projects. You can sit there and say ‘It went straight-to-dvd’ my a** … They’ll try to figure a way to discredit whatever you do because I come from that. I have a lot, so I’m conditioned to the people who haven’t been through that and can’t get to the next level…If they look at their favorite artists, they don’t have an opportunity to be in a film…” (93.3 Tampa Bay Radio)

Over the past year, 50 has had two of his films released directly on DVD.

50 Cent traveled back to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the premiere of his straight-to-DVD movie Caught in the Crossfire which was filmed on location in Grand Rapids. The majority of the film crew were also from Grand Rapids so it was quite the event for the town. 50 made the film under his Cheetah Vision production company but unfortunately was not able to break his streak of movies gone straight-to-DVD as Streets of Blood had the same fate. Caught in the Crossfire will be available on DVD July 13th. (WoooHa)

Check out 50 Cent speaking on his movies down below: