Johnny Depp’s The Notorious B.I.G. Film Hit With $10 Million Lawsuit

Johnny Depp's film City of Lies, based on the Los Angeles Police Department's investigation into the murders of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, continues to fall apart. Distributors were sued for $10 million by Bank Leumi on Wednesday (Aug. 29) after pulling the movie from their release schedule.

Global Road Entertainment planned to distribute City of Lies in theaters on Sept. 7 but this month backed out of the project "because of the current environment surrounding it," the company's CEO said in a recent phone conversation cited in the suit, Variety reports.

Miramax, which owned the film's television distribution rights, subsequently pulled out, too. The company wrote in a letter to Bank Leumi, which helped finance the project, that the decision was made in part because of "the highly publicized alleged offscreen conduct of Johnny Depp," which "significantly devalued" the movie.

In May, Depp allegedly punched a location manager on the film's set and shouted, "I'll give you $100,000 to punch me right now!" Two months later, the crew member sued the actor for the altercation. A witness, script supervisor Emma Danoff, who was on hand during the altercation, has denied the alleged victim's claims.

Bank Leumi seeks $5.4 million from Global Road and $4.25 million from Miramax, money that both distributors agreed to pay the bank.

It's unclear whether the film, based on Randall Sullivan's 2003 book LAbrynth, will ever see the light of the day. Depp plays Russell Poole, the LAPD detective who led the investigation and who claimed then-Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight and another LAPD officer were connected to the murder.

We may only ever get the trailer, which you can watch below.

See 60 Hip-Hop Albums Turning 20 in 2018