Starbreeze Leisure and Vice Studio’s Payday TV present has added an surprising title to its group: rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
The artist and actor behind every thing from 2000s hit “In Da Membership” to 2009 online game 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand has formally joined the heist online game adaptation as an govt producer. He is connected by way of his G-Unit Movie and Tv, an organization he launched within the 2000s as a part of his work exterior of music.
“G-Unit Movie & TV has constructed cinematic crime tales that join with audiences around the globe,” 50 Cent mentioned in an announcement. “Teaming up with Vice Studios and bringing the world of Payday to the display screen provides us the prospect to construct one thing huge, a high-energy franchise that pushes the heist style ahead.”
50 Cent has loads of expertise each in entrance of and behind the digicam. He is most lately served as an govt producer on reveals like Fightland, The Gilgo Seaside Killer: Home of Secrets and techniques, and Energy E book IV: Drive.
As an actor, he is proven up for motion pictures like Den of Thieves, Popstar: By no means Cease By no means Stopping, and Southpaw. One in every of his most notable film roles will really arrive in October when he performs Balrog for the live-action Avenue Fighter film. Gaming followers may additionally acknowledge him from his work not solely in tasks like Blood on the Sand and 50 Cent: Bulletproof but in addition the unique Name of Responsibility: Trendy Warfare 2.
“Payday has all the time been concerning the fantasy of getting away with it,” Starbreeze CEO Adolf Kristjansson mentioned. “Curtis and G-Unit don’t do delicate, and neither can we. This isn’t about taking part in it protected; it is about doing the franchise justice with people who find themselves as immersed on this planet as we’re.”
It appears 50 Cent’s involvement in Payday appears to be restricted to his half as an govt producer. Because the items to Starbreeze and Vice’s grand scheme are nonetheless coming collectively, the video game-to-TV-show adaptation remains to be with out a community or streamer to air it.
Payday, in the meantime, is Starbreeze’s long-running co-op online game collection, which was introduced to return to the TV world with assist from Vice this previous March. The collection has adopted masked criminals like Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf, and Chains as they plot and execute high-level heists. Payday has acquired three mainline entries to various levels of success. Payday 2, for instance, nonetheless attracts tens of 1000’s of gamers on Steam alone on daily basis, whereas its most up-to-date entry, Payday 3, has struggled to retain curiosity following its extraordinarily rocky launch again in 2023.
“Vice has all the time been drawn to tales that stay exterior the strains, and Payday is strictly that form of world,” president of Vice Studios Amy Powell mentioned. “G-Unit understands what makes Payday tick, and so they’re bringing a perspective that’s true to the franchise with out taking part in it protected.”
Starbreeze has additionally teased its curiosity in a Payday film previously, although we have acquired few updates on that entrance thus far. For now, the Payday TV present has no launch date, solid, or plot particulars able to be formally revealed. You’ll be able to learn up on the four-player co-op VR spinoff referred to as Payday: Aces Excessive that was introduced earlier this 12 months.
Picture by Theo Wargo/Getty Photographs.
Michael Cripe is a contract author with IGN. He is finest recognized for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Make sure you give him a observe on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).