Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson will star as a football player in Things Fall Apart.

Variety says Jackson, 34, will play a running back who faces a personal tragedy, as well as his own mortality, during his senior year in college. Jackson will also produce with Randall Emmett through their Cheetah Vision Films banner. Mario Van Peebles (New Jack City) is directing. Shooting starts in Michigan in May. Van Peebles, Lynn Whitfield, comedian Mike P and Steve Eastin will also star.

It has taken a while for the rapper turned actor to earn cred on the big screen. His first film venture, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, was not particularly well received and both Righteous Kill and Home of the Brave fared critically worse or the same. But Joel Schumacher’s Twelve, in which Jackson  plays a drug dealer and which also features Chace Crawford and Ellen Barkin, was a 2010 Sundance favourite, according to MTV.

Jackson, who will lose 65 pounds for the Things Fall Apart role, reportedly told Variety he enjoys filmmaking because of the storytelling opportunities. He said, “You have 90 minutes and 120 pages, compared with three minutes for a song,” he noted. “I’ve become very passionate about making films.”

Meanwhile, he is embarking on a two-month international tour in support of his latest album, Before I Self Destruct.

Cheetah Vision recently wrapped production of The Gun, starring Val Kilmer, AnnaLynne McCord and Jackson, also filmed in Michigan.

(Photo by PR Photos)

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