Hollywood and MTV Support Criminals Because It Sells

What's so terrible about this? He's a criminal making a movie about bank robbers, so its not like he's making the black Hannah Montana movie or something else for children. Its not that there are no black actors who can play the role, its that there are no black actors with name value. What black actors have name value these days? After the two big ones who do 1 or 2 movies a year, there's Terrence Howard, who is over a decade older than TI, and Tyrese, who started as a musician just like TI. The days of pulling a guy from a show on Fox or the smaller networks is over because those shows don't exist anymore. Also, since his company is producing the film, he is likely helping to finance it, which entices Screen Gems to distribute it.

As far as his MTV show, I think it is a good thing that something like that is going to be on TV, because kids need to see that he is a guy who has it all and now he is going to jail because of his own paranoia. They are chronicling him going to schools and community centers spreading a good message to the youth, that going to jail isn't cool. There are people in the MTV viewing audience who could be going through a similar situation, only they won't be coming home to a mansion, multiple successful businesses, and the ability to ask and receive 50 grand a show in almost any venue in the country. The MTV show will reach a wider audience than he can on his own, even if he was to visit 5 schools with 1500 students a day.

Compared to the other black actors in his age range that are out there, yes, he does. His first movie, "ATL", did $21 million and over a million DVDs for what was essentially a PG-13 southern remake of Boyz N Da Hood with commercials that were 15 seconds of clips from his latest music video and 15 seconds of him, Diana Ross' son, and a girl who was best known for being in a Jay-Z video 3 years earlier. His last album sold almost 500,000 copies its first week, in a time when albums aren't selling like that anymore. And I know album sales usually don't translate to massive box office, but rap fans feel a greater connection with the artists as characters, so T.I. in a gangsta heist film will work. The audience for this movie is going to be sitting around on a Friday and someone will say "I wanna go see 'Bone Deep'" and another person will ask what that is and they'll say "that's that movie with T.I. in it" and everyone there will know what he's talking about, which wouldn't happen if they casted an unknown, or even someone with some TV experience, like a Jamie Hector or someone like that. A movie like this doesn't need to be a big hit to be considered a success, especially since they'll probably only do 1500 prints and only serve the areas where it will do well.