Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Kevin Hart and more Hollywood stars are headed to a TV screen near you.
“Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” an upcoming limited series that tells the story of an armed robbery following Muhammad Ali’s comeback fight in 1970, dropped its first teaser trailer and release date on June 12. The Peacock series will premiere on Sept. 5.
Based on the true-crime podcast of the same, “Fight Night” follows a lottery kingpin named Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams who is planning to host an after-party for the rich and famous in Atlanta after the Ali fight. When the night ends with armed robbery, Chicken Man must find a way to clear his name after being accused of organizing the crime. J.D. Hudson (Cheadle), one of the city’s first Black detectives after desegregation, is tasked with investigating the robbery and finding justice, according to a press release.
Chloe Bailey, Lori Harvey, Sinqua Walls, Marsha Stephanie Blake all guest star in the series.
“Fight Night” will tell “the origin story of Atlanta,” according to executive producer Will Packer per Vanity Fair.
“I want people to come out of this feeling like they got an authentic slice of what life was like for Black Americans living in Atlanta in the ’70s,” Packer told the publication in a recent interview.
Creator and showrunner Shaye Ogbonna added that “Fight Night” is the “embodiment of the American dream.”
“In a period of about 25 to 30 years, Atlanta went from this city so associated with a dark time in our country, in terms of Jim Crow, to an Olympic city and the Black Hollywood, for lack of a better term,” Ogbonna said.
Hart, who also executive produces “Fight Night,” opened up to Vanity Fair about taking on a dramatic role in the series after building his career in comedy.
“You’re talking about a hustler, you’re talking about a true entrepreneur—a guy who was chaotic to a certain degree, but driven,” Hart told the publication about his character. “He was a visionary. He saw the city of Atlanta becoming so much more than what Atlanta probably intended for itself.”