Johnny Depp is in talks to play the role of former Los Angeles Police Department detective Russell Poole in the upcoming film Labyrinth. The film will focus on Poole during his investigations on the deaths of rap legends Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the biopic will be helmed by Brad Furman, the director of 2011's The Lincoln Lawyer. The upcoming film's screenplay will be penned by Christian Contreras based on Randall Sullivan's book Labyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records' Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal.
As reported by the Rolling Stone, Poole handled the murder case of Christopher Wallace, also known as Notorious B.I.G., after the rapper was fatally shot in March 1997. Based on Poole's investigations, the detective was able to come up with a theory that implicated Knight in the killing of Wallace.
Poole claimed that Knight enlisted the help of David Mack, an officer for the LAPD at that time, to carry out the attack on Wallace. According to the detective, the hit on the rapper was a form of retaliation for the death of Shakur, who died in 1996 due to gunshot wounds.
After naming a fellow law enforcer as a suspect in the case, Poole was forced by the LAPD to retire early in 1999. He became a private investigator after his retirement.
In 2015, he approached the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Office in an attempt to re-open a cold case, which was believed to be the unsolved murder of Wallace. Shortly after the meeting, Poole died due to a heart attack.
Following Poole's death on Aug. 19 last year, Busta Rhymes took to Instagram to honor pool and to point out the strange nature of the incident.
A photo posted by Busta Rhymes (@conglomerateent) on Aug 20, 2015 at 10:36am PDT
