50 Cent Forced To Change Title
Rex Okpodu has drawn my attention to the following story from The Guardian: ’50 Cent has been undone by one of Africa’s greatest novelists, Chinua Achebe. The rapper’s latest movie has been renamed ahead of its release, due to a conflict with Achebe’s most famous work. “Things Fall Apart,” published by Achebe in 1958, is Nigeria’s most famous English-language novel. It has sold more than 8m copies worldwide. Unfortunately, 50 Cent was not aware of this. He spent much of 2010 shooting a film of the same name, the story of an American football player diagnosed with cancer. “It’s a project that I wrote, produced and financed myself,” he explained last year. Directed by Mario Van Peebles, it premiered at the Miami film festival in March and is expected to be released soon.’ It is extraordinary to me that no one involved with the movie bothered to conduct the simplest Internet search of the title, to make sure there were no conflicts. Not to mention the illiteracy of all concerned. Achebe’s book was taught in my high school, for God’s sake — in a small town in South Dakota!
