For those who don't know, Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker were set to star in City Of Lies, a thriller chronicling the unsolved mystery of The Notorious B.I.G's murder. The film was slated for a September 7th release, with a trailer already having amassed three million YouTube views; the opening hook, "Who Shot Biggie?", immediately grounds this one comfortably within the hip-hop realm. As such, fans were no doubt eager to, at the very least, catch this one on Netflix. Unfortunately, it would appear that the film is no longer slated to be released on its original date.
After a distributor switch in summer 2017, City Of Lies found itself in the hands of Global Road. Now, Deadline reports that the company has yet to provide a replacement date, leaving the film in a purgatorial state. It's especially strange given the original intent of dropping the film on Biggie's birthday. Though ostensibly unconnected, Deadline points out that the pull takes place about a month after Depp was hit with a lawsuit from location manager Gregg “Rocky” Brooks. Apparently, Brooks found himself on the receiving end of a Depp beatdown after announcing the night shoot was running late.
From the sound of it, the Brooks' claim may prove more troublesome for the film than originally expected; his suit actually names ten parties, including director Brad Furman, producers Miriam Segal, Good Film Productions and Depp’s Infinitum Nihil. The plot thickens.
For now, City Of Lies remains date-free, and will remain that way for the indefinite future.