John Legend’s production company, Get Lifted is turning its attention toward the life of famed comedian Bernie Mac. A Bernie Mac biopic is indeed coming!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Legend’s production company has partnered with Bernie Mac’s estate to create a feature film biopic about the comedian. The news was made public at the 2021 Tribeca Festival, to the surprise of Legend himself.
“We just partnered with Bernie Mac’s estate to cover Bernie Mac’s story,” said Get Lifted producing partner Mike Jackson. “[The film is] something that John doesn’t even know about yet,” he added, saying he was “very excited” about the deal that had happened prior to their Tribeca panel.
“It’s all about the opportunities to tell as story that you feel [is] important,” said Jackson.
Mac died in 2008 from complications with pneumonia. The complications possibly arose from his prior diagnosis of sarcoidosis, a disease that inflames the body’s tissues. For Mac, the disease targeted his lungs. His career took off from the 2000 comedy film The Original Kings of Comedy, directed by Spike Lee. The film also pushed the careers of comedians Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and Steve Harvey to even higher notoriety.
One of Mac’s last projects was the popular Fox sitcom The Bernie Mac Show, loosely based on his life. One of the hallmarks of the show was Mac directly addressing “America” when talking about his trials and successes as an instant father to children.
As wrote in 2018 about the series, “He was talking to the viewers, but more importantly, he was talking directly to the parents who had been where he’d been and understood the challenges he was facing. These were like fireside chats in a way; it was as if Mac was telling everyone who has been responsible for another person they were all in this thing together. They were all going to make mistakes, and they were all going to want to reach out to “America” to see if someone else had these same issues. Mac’s character might have been calling out to the country, but the real Mac was letting every parent know that it’s normal for parents not to have any idea of what they’re doing.”