Ava DuVernay to Direct Nipsey Hussle Documentary for Netflix

Ava DuVernay is set to direct a feature-length documentary on the late rapper and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle for Netflix, focusing on his life, work and activism until he was killed in Los Angeles last year.

Rights over the documentary saw the various streaming services engulfed in a pitched bidding-war, though according the Hollywood Reporter, the project didn’t fetch the figures that Apple is spending on its Billie Eilish film ($26 million) or Amazon on its Rihanna documentary ($25 million), with the project landing somewhere in the mid-teens.

Regardless of the budget, the film will be in capable hands. DuVernay’s previous documentary experience includes the Oscar-nominated 13th, which explores racial inequality in America through the lens of the country’s prison system. In 2017, DuVernay had Hussle serve as a panelist to “offer his perspective on how the for-profit prison system was decimating inner-city communities,” THR reports.

Hussle’s family has also agreed to participate in the movie, which will be produced by DuVernay and Hussle’s Marathon Films.