Articles
Tupac Shakur warrant was for house of gang member who says he witnessed the murder
July 20, 2023, 9:47 AM | By Andrew Blankstein and Antonio Planas
Nevada police executed a search warrant Monday in the investigation of the murder of Tupac Shakur looking for laptops and other electronic devices at the home of a gang member who said he was in the car when the superstar rapper was fatally shot in Las Vegas in 1996, according to the warrant, exclusively obtained by NBC News on Thursday.
Duane Keith Davis, 60, also known as “Keefy D” or “Keffe D,” was the target of the warrant in Clark County, under which Las Vegas police also searched desktops and other electronic storage devices, such as thumb drives, CDs, external hard drives and audio recordings, the warrant said.
Davis, the warrant said, was affiliated with the South Side Compton Crips street gang, and he has been vocal about his involvement over the years.
Davis was one of four people who police say was in the suspect vehicle when Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The suspect in the shooting, Orlando Anderson, Davis’ nephew, later died in a gang-related killing in Los Angeles. Davis, who was investigated by both Los Angeles and Las Vegas police, initially denied involvement but later gave police details about the case under a limited non-prosecution agreement. More recently, he has openly discussed his presence at the scene in interviews, articles and other media.
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CSFI is set to produce the feature film Welcome to Compton. The film is best described as The Usual Suspects meets Boyz n the Hood. The film is based on the true story surrounding the events about the men who executed the assassination of Tupac Shakur.
Ample Entertainment Leads FBI To Possible Jimmy Hoffa Gravesite, Plans Premium Docuseries
November 19, 2021, | 11:08 AM By Peter White
EXCLUSIVE: The disappearance of notorious mob consort Jimmy Hoffa is one of the great American mysteries and it has moved a step closer to being solved.
The FBI recently descended on a former landfill in Jersey City after a deathbed confession with a man who said he buried Hoffa’s body in a steel barrel.
Deadline understands that Ample Entertainment, the production company behind series including Discovery’s Cooper’s Treasure and History’s Lost Gold of WW2, is at the center of the revelations.
The company, which is run by filmmakers Ari Mark and Phil Lott, led federal investigators to the site after securing exclusive access to Hoffa expert and journalist Dan Moldea.
Moldea has been searching for Hoffa since he vanished from the Machus Red Fox restaurant parking lot in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, in 1975.
He then came upon Frank Cappola, who said that his father, landfill owner Paul Cappola, told him, as he was dying, that he was instructed to bury Hoffa’s body. Frank Cappola himself died in March 2020 but told Moldea his secret.
Ample Entertainment, working with Moldea and producer Beaux Carson, subsequently conducted a ground penetrating radar (GPR) test, filmed it and shared it with an agent connected to the FBI, which led federal investigators to descend on the site in late October.
“I met Dan Moldea, he wrote the book on the Hoffa story and he told this great story, this is his white whale,” Mark told Deadline. “As we became more convinced and learned about this eyewitness, then we visited the site, it does start to add up. The fact that the FBI took this seriously and descended on the site and called Dan in for an interview, and interrogated him, really changed the game and I realized we had something incredible.”
“The FBI has pulled something out of the ground, we don’t know exactly what that is, but they were just checking to see what’s needed for an excavation. They will be returning. We don’t believe they have pulled up the trophy yet,” Mark added.
Ample’s cameras have been following Moldea’s hunt to discover what happened to the Teamsters boss the whole way.
“When you’re in this situation, from a filmmaking standpoint, no matter what happens this is an awesome story and we have exclusive access to this guy. The instinct is to start filming things before going to network has paid off and it works. That’s exciting. We can be a little more guerrilla [in terms of the filmmaking]. The part about making history, that’s interesting, but this is Dan’s journey. We’re trying to be careful that we’re not trying to take credit for some massive historical moment because the truth is he spent his life doing it, we just happened to make the right decision along the way,” he added.
The Hoffa story has been told multiple times in docs and films, most recently in Netflix’s The Irishman, the Martin Scorsese film that paints a picture that Robert De Niro’s truck driver turned hitman killed Al Pacino’s Hoffa after the mob dons have become fed up with him.
Mark said, “It’s one thing if we were just talking about a past tense story about some guy’s journey looking for Jimmy Hoffa, but to be able to lace in this present tense investigation and be able to offer that up, that’s the gamechanger. Those are the things that really perform the best, when it’s not just a retrospective about The Irishman.”
Mark and Lott are now working out when to pitch the documentary series project to buyers and expect to start that process soon. “If we wanted to just sell it tomorrow, I’m sure we could, but if we want to make something really substantive and sell it to the right place, we have to get our ducks in a row and that means going through all of the content we’ve already shot and thinking about how we’re going to continue to monitor the situation while pitching it because this is unfolding day-to-day now.”
The Hoffa project is one of a number of series that Ample Entertainment is currently making. It is also working on natural history doc Kangaroos: The Story of Mala for Netflix, season four of Discovery+’s Murder in the Heartland and is making a new series for HBO with Adam McKay that is directed by Mark and Lott.
“I know the Hoffa story is saturated, and it’s almost the butt of a joke at this point, but it’s still the most high-profile disappearance in history, at least for this country” he added.
Read the full article at:
https://deadline.com/2021/11/jimmy-hoffa-gravesite-fbi-ample-entertainment-docuseries-1234877603
CSFI is set to executive produce a feature film and television special based on award-winning investigative journalist Dan Moldea’s search for Jimmy Hoffa.
Jimmy Hoffa Vanished 46 Years Ago, Triggering A Mystery I Hope To Help Solve
July 31, 2021, | 12:33 PM By Dan Moldea
I'd like a dollar for every person who said to me during the past 46 years: “The Mafia would have never murdered Jimmy Hoffa in Detroit and then shipped him for burial over 600 miles east to the PJP Landfill, aka ‘Brother Moscato’s Dump,’ under the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City.”
As anyone who has been following my ongoing Ahab v. White Whale slow-speed chase knows, I have bet everything I have that this is exactly what happened. Indeed, I have pushed “all in.”
Truth be told, though, just five months after the July 1975 killing, the FBI was the first to legitimize this theory. Based on the statements of Ralph Picardo, a flipped federal witness, U.S. prosecutors and FBI special agents sought and obtained a search warrant for the PJP Landfill and served it on PJP’s owner-operators, Phillip Moscato and Paul Cappola, on December 11, 1975, ostensibly looking for Armand Faugno, a murdered mobbed-up Jersey City loanshark.
To be sure, though, based on Picardo’s information, federal agents tried but failed to find Hoffa. The problem was they did not have a specific location for his unmarked grave in the 34-acre landfill.
But thanks to my key source whom I met in September 2019 — the late Frank Cappola, the oldest son of PJP co-owner Paul Cappola — I have now given what I believe is the exact location to federal investigators, which is only about 150 yards from the site they searched in December 1975.
So, if confirmed, the FBI’s 46-year investigation will be vindicated. And so will mine…
…Immediately after our tour of PJP in September 2019 and with Cappola’s approval, I put together a production team for a documentary about his story. Our team captain was Beaux Carson of Carson Signature Films, a trusted friend of mine since the early 1990s and a specialist in life-rights arrangements. Almost immediately, again with Cappola’s approval, Carson’s agent, Richard Lawrence, opened negotiations with Ari Mark, the co-founder of the award-winning production company and showrunner Ample Entertainment.
All four of us agreed that no one would accept any money until Hoffa’s body was recovered and positively identified by the FBI. If and when that happened, Ample would negotiate a deal with a major media organization to finance a documentary about my successful 46-year search for Hoffa’s remains, based on Cappola’s information.
If I was wrong about the location of Hoffa’s remains, there would be no deal.
Inasmuch as we believed we knew the location, we needed to arrange for a ground-penetrating-radar examination of the site. Because of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic and other obstacles, we did not sign our contract with Ample, which would arrange for the mechanics of the GPR and a possible excavation, until August 2020.
Meantime, after reading my two stories for The Mob Museum, several colleagues — excellent researchers all — admonished me, claiming that I had forgotten that the PJP Landfill, aka Brother Moscato’s Dump, was an EPA Superfund site during the 1980s. Thus, they argued, the 15 to 30 chemical drums piled on top of Jimmy Hoffa — encased in a 55-gallon steel drum at the bottom of an eight- to 15-foot hole — would have been collected and disposed of as part of the overall EPA cleanup.
However, Frank Cappola had stated in his sworn declaration: “[B]ecause of my father’s decision to bury Hoffa’s body off the PJP property, it is possible, even probable, that the grave was not affected by the EPA cleanup. In other words, the burial site likely still exists and is intact.”
Just to be sure, I obtained the EPA’s record of its multi-year, cleanup operation at PJP and found a map showing the agency’s site boundary. Confirming what Cappola had stated under oath, I was relieved to see that the actual location of Hoffa’s remains under the Pulaski Skyway was a few hundred feet beyond the EPA’s eastern perimeter.
Further, local property records showed that Hoffa’s alleged unmarked grave was, indeed, not buried on PJP property. Instead, it was on state property, regulated by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which controlled everything on and under the Pulaski Skyway.
So, led by Beaux Carson, our team began planning for the ground-penetrating-radar analysis of the site identified by Cappola. However, when Carson contacted the Department of Transportation to make the necessary arrangements, an agency official told him that we needed a permit, which would take more time than expected….
…In September 2020, two months before the GPR examination, two FBI agents called and asked for my cooperation on the Hoffa case, based on recent articles I had written and television shows on which I had appeared. Inasmuch as I was in a “use it or lose it” situation and needed the FBI, as required by law, to perform the excavation, I was more than happy to oblige.
In fact, I told both agents that my team wanted to give them everything they needed “on a silver platter,” leaving them “with nothing to do but DNA the contents of the unmarked barrel at the bottom of that unmarked grave” under the Pulaski Skyway.
Notably, when the Hoffa investigation was red hot back in 1975, I made it my business to know several federal agents personally. But, respecting the traditional one-way-street ritual between reporters and the FBI, no federal agent had ever spoon-fed information to me. Yet I could always depend on some of them to make sure I never went off track. If I did, they would gently guide me back onto the proper path without violating their oaths.
Today, I am, once again, on the now-familiar one-way street with the FBI, contributing all the information I have while receiving nothing in return. And even though I do not really know any of these current federal agents very well — some of whom were not even born when Hoffa died — I am cooperating without complaint and with total enthusiasm.
To be clear, I have given the FBI every document, photograph and videotape requested, along with any other materials I think might be useful. But, recognizing how busy the FBI is with pending 21st century problems — such as the Capitol Insurrection and foreign cyber-warfare, among other serious national-security threats — I can understand why the Bureau is taking a considerable amount of time to solve a 20th century mystery.
However, I do know — from our sources on the ground in Jersey City — that the area pinpointed by the late Frank Cappola has been protected for several months. No one can get close to “The Spot” for any unauthorized digging or malicious vandalism.
If this alleged location of Hoffa’s remains is confirmed, it will vindicate the FBI’s original theory of Hoffa’s whereabouts, as well as its December 1975 search warrant on the PJP Landfill and its entire 46-year investigation.
The FBI deserves that. And when that moment finally arrives, I want — and deserve — to be present at the scene to witness and report on this unfolding history.
Read the full article at: https://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/28507/column_46_years_ago_jimmy_hoffa_vanished_triggering_a_mystery_i_hope_to_help_solve
CSFI is set to executive produce a feature film and television special based on award-winning investigative journalist Dan Moldea’s search for Jimmy Hoffa.
Catherine Hardwick To Direct ‘Dissonance’ Adaptation With Andrea Seigel Scripting
By Amanda N’Duka October 9, 2018 10:43am
Catherine Hardwicke, who has directed such films as Twilight, Red Riding Hood, and Thirteen, has signed on to direct the fantasy film Dissonance for Straight Up Films and Envision Media Arts. Andrea Seigel (Laggies) is adapting the screenplay for the film, which is based on the 2014 book of the same name by Erica O’Rourke.
The story centers around Del, a young woman who has the ability to walk between these alternate realities and is entrusted with keeping the dimensions in harmony. When she secretly starts to investigate other dissonant worlds, Del uncovers a secret that threatens the survival of the entire multiverse.
Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen of Straight Up (Transcendence) are producing the project with Lee Nelson and David Tish from Envision (Celeste and Jesse Forever). Exec producers are Tim Degraye and Liliane Huguet of White Knight Pictures, Beaux Carson, and David Buelow.
Hardwicke, who directed Sony’s upcoming Miss Bala remake, starring Gina Rodriguez, is repped by CAA and Manage-Ment. Seigel is repped by UTA and Writ Large.
https://deadline.com/2018/10/catherine-hardwick-direct-dissonance-andrea-seigel-script-1202479303/
Tina Fey's Production Company Inks First-Look Deal With Universal
By Rebecca Ford 11:00 AM 2/3/2016
Universal and Little Stranger's upcoming projects include 'Do Nothing Bitches,' starring Fey and Ronda Rousey.
Tina Fey and her production banner Little Stranger have inked a two-year, first-look deal with Universal.
The actress-writer-producer was most recently seen starring in Universal's comedy Sisters opposite Amy Poehler. The film has earned more than $100 million at the worldwide box office to date.
Fey also has hired Eric Gurian, whom she worked with for 11 years on both Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, as executive vp of Little Stranger. Gurian co-produced Sisters and is currently serving as a co-executive producer on Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
"With her trademark wit, unparalleled voice and business acumen, Tina has found success on nearly every platform — both in front of and behind the camera. We are thrilled to continue our relationship with her team and develop projects that entertain global audiences," Universal chairman Donna Langley said in a statement. "She is a comedic icon whose fearless commitment to her craft has made her one of the entertainment industry’s most in-demand talents. We could not be more fortunate now that we are able to call Universal her home."
Little Stranger's upcoming projects include Do Nothing Bitches, which will star Fey and UFC champion Ronda Rousey; and a film based on the Good Housekeeping article You Bet! by Ruth Palmer, which follows three women who, when struggling financially, learn to count cards in Atlantic City. Fey is attached to star, and Sarah Heyward (HBO’s Girls) recently signed on to write the script.
"Universal has proven to be such a great home for comedy," said Fey. "I’m very excited to continue collaborating with, and learning from, Donna Langley, [Universal Pictures president of production] Peter Cramer and the entire production team."
Fey's other upcoming projects include Paramount's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which she stars in and produced. It opens in March. She was repped in the deal by WME, 3 Arts and Ziffren Brittenham.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tina-feys-production-company-inks-861628
Helen Mirren leads the cast of Taymor's Tempest
By Ben Child October 8, 2008 10:11pm
Helen Mirren will play a female Prospero in a new big screen version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
She will join a highly decorated cast which already includes Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina and Ben Whishaw. Director Julie Taymor has changed the gender of the magician at the heart of Shakespeare's final play in order to cast Dame Helen, who will be known as Prospera. Felicity Jones will play her daughter Miranda, with whom the rightful Duke (now presumably Duchess) of Milan has been marooned on an island after being usurped by his/her brother.
Taymor has experience of big screen Shakespeare adaptations, having directed 1999's Titus, based on the bard's Titus Andronicus, which starred Anthony Hopkins. Mirren has been in high demand since her Oscar-winning turn in The Queen. She will play a former Mossad agent who must cover up the re-emergence of a Nazi war criminal after 30 years in John Madden's thriller The Debt, and has a major part in the forthcoming Hollywood remake of the 2003 BBC TV mini-series State of Play, which will star Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck.
The Tempest, which is generally dated around 1611, has come to be seen as one of Shakespeare's greatest plays by 20th century critics, although it was not hugely popular during the playwright's lifetime.
There have been myriad big screen versions, some sticking closely to Shakespeare's original, others deviating hugely. Derek Jarman directed a sexualised version in 1979, with Toyah Wilcox as Miranda and Heathcote Williams as Prospero. Paul Mazursky's 1982 modern-language version reimagined Prospero as Philip, a disillusioned New York architect who retreats to a lonely Greek island with his daughter. Peter Greenaway's visually opulent Prospero's Books saw John Gielgud finally realise his dream of playing his favourite part on screen. Taymor's version is expected to stick closely to the original text, bar that previously mentioned gender change.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/08/helen.mirren.tempest
Suge Knight film tells story of Tupac
By Ahale Feb 25, 2005, 12:00am
Suge Knight will finally get to tell his side of the story. The CEO of Death Row Records has signed with Beaux Carson’s Carson Signature Films to deliver his vision of the events surrounding Tupac Shakur’s fatal shooting.
Beaux Carson had been pursuing Knight for roughly two years trying to solidify the deal. Carson describes the as-yet titled film to be along the lines of “’Training Day’ Meets ‘The Godfather.’” But also stresses that this is “just a story” and is not pointing any fingers at anyone in particular. Carson reported that Knight may do a CD in conjunction with the film with a portion the proceeds going to fund programs serving under-privileged youth.
While the details involving the fatal shooting has been sketchy at best and still remains one of the music world’s largest mysteries, it will be quite interesting to see what Knight has to offer. Remember, Suge was behind the wheel of the BMW that Tupac was riding in when the fatal drive-by happened in Las Vegas. No plans to shoot the film have been disclosed as of press time.
https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.3093/title.suge-knight-film-tells-story-of-tupacs-death
Helmer hikes to ‘Mountain’
By Dana Harris, Sharon Swart / Mar 22, 2005 9:00pm
George Hickenlooper will direct the coming-of-age thriller “Blue Mountain” for Carson Signature Films and Chapman Ventures.
Story, set in a small Southern town, concerns a stolen gun that may have been linked to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Pic’s backdrop stems from the theory that RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan did not act alone.
Script was penned by Darby Connor. Beaux Carson, Heidi Levitt and Donald Zuckerman will produce.
Hickenlooper plans to segue to “Blue Mountain” after wrapping the Edie Sedgwick biopic “Factory Girl,” which should lense this spring.
Chapman Ventures, which brought the financing, will exec produce, with prexy Laurie Chapman overseeing the project for the company.
https://variety.com/2005/film/markets-festivals/helmer-hikes-to-mountain-1117920001/
Pro Paintball to be Televised
Entertainment News/ August 18, 2003 / 12:37pm
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Professional paintball will be televised, following an acquisition Monday by dick clark productions, inc.
The company said it had acquired the broadcast rights for Professioanl League Paintball, a league of eight teams competing in professional level play in the United States.
The teams from Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Oakland and Philadelphia form the first organized pro league in the sport of paintball and are currently completing their first season.
The company said paintball is the fastest growing sport in the country and has surpassed snowboarding in popularity, with over 15 million players worldwide.
Along with the league rights, Dick Clark (pictured right) of dick clark productions, inc. also optioned a celebrity paintball-themed reality show. Both projects were packaged and brought to the production company by Beaux Carson (pictured left) of Carson Signature Films, Inc.
Smart Parts Hits Hollywood
By Smart Parts - May 2003
It was like a surreal Hollywood experience...cruising down the legendary Sunset Boulevard in a sleek, black Mercedes, dusk rolling in on a perfect California evening. On our way to supposedly meet Steven Seagal, we were a little skeptical, but in true California style, we decided to just go with the flow.
Moments later when we pulled down a long private drive, and the massive iron gate barring our way slowly opened, reality struck...we were at Seagal's home. Before we knew it, we were shaking hands with the superstar in his living room. After warm and friendly introductions, we stepped outside. Much to our surprise Seagal grabbed an Impulse and zipped off 30 rounds, accurately hitting every target he aimed for.
This was a cap to our whirlwind week in Hollywood. Fresh from selling our Paintball television reality series several weeks ago, we hit the town running to pitch a Paintball- based feature film project. Blasting from one meeting to another, we met with Hollywood's top producers at virtually every major studio. Power meetings, power lunches and cell phone madness spun us into "the industry" web as we pitched our way across Los Angeles.
On the last day, offers were flying left and right, and the Paintball feature film found a home with a major Hollywood production company.
In the middle of the week we picked up something totally unexpected---a potential relationship with Special Effects Unlimited to provide guns for the movie Terminator III.
Why did we go to Hollywood? We had an idea to bring the sport of Paintball to the next level, to raise public awareness and increase business, not only for ourselves, but for everyone involved in servicing the sport.
Back in Pennsylvania, out of the crazy fast lane of Hollywood, we can relax and savor our victories...victories made possible by one person, Beaux Carson, our LA-based executive producer who single-handedly captured the flag for our team.
‘Bonanno’ bonanza
$15 mil Showtime miniseries tops 11-pic slate
By Richard Katz August 13, 1998 12:00am
“The Agency,” which Offsay described as “one of our more commercial pictures,” is currently in post-production. The film stars Tom Berenger and Ron Silver in a story that follows an ex-CIA operative who is drafted back into action. Distributed by Paramount Network Television, the film is helmed by actor Tim Matheson from a screenplay by Roger Towne. The movie is produced by David Madden and Robert W. Cort and executive produced by Towne. Keri Lyn Selig, Tim Gibbons and Beaux Carson serve as co-producers.
https://variety.com/1998/tv/news/bonanno-bonanza-1117479439/
Dick Clark on the set of ESPN NXL Paintball Championship
ESPN NXL Paintball Championship
Dick Clark on the set of ESPN NXL Paintball Championship
Behind the scenes of
‘In the Company of Spies’
Behind the scenes of
‘The Tempest’
Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight
Beaux Carson and Dick Clark
Behind the scenes of the ESPN NXL Paintball Championship
Behind the scenes of
‘In the Company of Spies’
Behind the scenes of
‘The Tempest’
Behind the scenes of
‘The Tempest’
Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight (the night Tupac was murdered)