Showtime Sets Suge Knight Documentary

Just weeks after Showtime bowed its Paul McCartney documentary, the premium cable network is delving into another music-themed effort with Suge Knight.

Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua will direct and produce the tentatively titled project based on the life and exploits of the Death Row Records co-founder. Black Swan’s Bradley J. Fischer will produce alongside Fuqua. The Knight doc is the first in a series of new documentaries produced by Showtime that will spotlight iconic and controversial figures to be overseen by filmmakers.

“Suge Knight’s reputation and rise to power in the music business has become the stuff of legend, and he remains one of the entertainment industry’s most provocative and enduring myths,” Fischer said in a statement announcing the news Tuesday. “But while his name elicits an immediate and powerful reaction from people around the world, very few can legitimately claim to know the man. Antoine Fuqua and I are thrilled to be partnering with Showtime to tell this remarkable story and take audiences behind a curtain that most have been terrified to even approach.”

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Knight will participate in the doc and will discuss his rise to fame, why it fell apart and what’s next. The former CEO of Death Row Records is credited with launching the careers of Snoop Dogg and P Diddy, among others.

David Prior, Laeta Kalogridis, James Vanderbilt, Lisa Remington and Edward McGurn will executive produce, with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chuck Philips co-producing.

The effort also doubles as Knight’s return to the music business: the producer set to oversee the film’s soundtrack, which will feature original tracks from new and established performers, through his new company Black Kapital.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit