Terrence Howard has been cast in Peacock’s upcoming Muhammad Ali heist series “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” TheWrap has learned.
He joins previously announced stars Kevin Hart and Samuel L. Jackson, starring as gangster Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler. Hart also executive produces the project.
“Fight Night” additionally reteams Howard with his “Hustle & Flow” writer-director Craig Brewer, who executive produces the limited series and directs the first two episodes. Shaye Ogbonna (“Penguin,” “The Chi”) created and writes the series in addition to serving as co-showrunner and executive producer with Jason Horwitch.
“Set in Atlanta, the series follows the heavyweight fight and criminal underground heist that introduced the world to the city dubbed ‘the Black Mecca’ and the cop and the hustler at the center of it all,” according to an official log line from Peacock. Centered on the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight, it shows how that fight and an armed robbery “changed not only one man’s life, but an entire city’s destiny.”
Additional executive producers on the project are Sabrina Wind for Will Packer Media; Bryan Smiley and Mike Stein for Hartbeat; Conal Byrne, Will Pearson and Carrie Lieberman for iHeartPodcasts; and Jeff Keating and Lars Jacobson. Tiffany Brown of Hartbeat and Kenny Burns will co-executive produce.
Based on the true crime podcast “Fight Night” by iHeartPodcasts, Doghouse Pictures and Will Packer Media, the project comes from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Howard, whose character Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler was a gangster and associate of the Council of 12, was nominated for Best Actor at the 2006 Academy Awards for “Hustle & Flow” and is also known for his starring role in Fox’s “Empire.” He next stars in John Ridley’s “Shirley” opposite Regina King.
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