Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole Are Producing a Movie Starring 50 Cent

Some days, I think of football as an arena in which human character can be tested in clarifying and edifying ways: greed, courage, fortitude, lust, creativity, ambition, and sacrifice all striving together to give us a sharper image of ourselves. Other days, I read in the Hollywood Reporter that Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole are joining forces to executive-produce a movie starring 50 Cent.

The film, titled Dead Man Running in an apparent homage to the career of Joleon Lescott, is a gangster tale in the Guy Ritchie vein, set in Manchester and the East End, obviously.

According to the Guardian‘s Ben Child,

50 Cent, aka Curtis Jackson, will play a ruthless loan shark (is there any other kind?) in the movie, which is set against the backdrop of a criminal underworld struggling in the wake of—yes, you guessed it—the credit crunch.

The storyline, which has the sort of synopsis which makes the premise of most Ritchie films look like the plot of The Big Sleep, sees an ex-con given 24 hours to raise £100,000 to pay off Jackson’s loan shark or become a “dead man running”. He travels from the dog tracks of the East End to Manchester’s druggy underground in a desperate effort to secure the cash.

I could tell you who’s on board to write and direct, but neither of us cares. There’s a lot of speculation about whether Rio and Ashley will do cameos. I’m more interested in whether 50 Cent will try on a Mockney accent. No, actually. I’m not.