&#8220;How do we present [stories] to audiences who don&#8217;t know about stories they need to know? That&#8217;s the priority,&#8221; says Hart while speaking with production partner Bryan Smiley about the Peacock heist series.
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In the opening monologue of the first episode of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams, played by Kevin Hart, lays the foundation for Peacock’s eight-part limited series (which is now streaming its first three episodes).
“You know they burned Atlanta to the ground,” Chicken Man tells his friend, who runs a funeral home and is setting a body in a casket. “They burned it down to the ashes, just like they did in that old Gone with the Wind motherfucker. Yeah, but Atlanta rose up, rebuilt! How we do that? Because of us. Because of Black folks, that’s how we did it. They did the same thing in Chicago, too. But the difference is we’re not like Chicago, not one bit. We’re not like Chicago, New York, L.A., no. Down here, we’re different. Know why we’re different? Because down, here n***as think different, we moves different. We know our history, but we don’t let our history fuck up our hustle.”
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Based on a 2020 iHeart true-crime podcast about actual events that happened in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1970, Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist tells the story of Chicken Man, a small-time Atlanta hustler who runs a gambling-betting system in the southern city’s streets. But he wants something bigger and better for himself and his family (consisting of his pious wife and kids, and a mistress named Vivian Thomas, played by Taraji P. Henson). He also wants something better for the city he dearly loves and calls home.
But Chicken Man and his city will face a barrage of formidable circumstances, including what many consider the most brazen armed-robbery in Atlanta’s history set amid the backdrop of an unsanctioned fight for the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, who, at the time, was exiled from boxing due to his opposition to the Vietnam War and refusal to be drafted.
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As it was originally told in podcast form (which was produced by Will Packer, who is an executive producer here), Chicken Man Williams set up a big gambling afterparty to take place at a house. Top leaders from organized crime from all over the country were invited, including New York boss Frank Moten (played by Samuel L. Jackson) and New Jersey crime leader Cadillac Richie (Terrence Howard). Each gangster is told no guns are allowed, and Chicken Man hoped the party would usher him to the next plateau of success. But masked robbers infiltrate with shotguns and pistols; money and jewelry are taken and the partygoers are made to strip down to their underwear in the basement and be quiet for hours as new guests arrived to meet the same fate.
After the robbers get their fill and leave, the mob bosses are furious and want revenge. The first person they turn their ire on is Chicken Man. Of course, he’s the one who invited them to the party, told them no guns and put the whole event together. But Chicken Man is a victim in the robbery, too. He is now on the run from gangsters who want him dead and the Atlanta P.D., and is trying to prove his innocence. He reluctantly solicits the help of a Black Atlanta Police Detective who once put him in prison, J.D. Hudson (played by Don Cheadle). Chicken Man hopes Hudson will help him find the actual thieves and prove his innocence to the police and to the mobsters who want him dead.
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The Hollywood Reporter recently caught up with Hart and Bryan Smiley, Hart’s partner at his Hartbeat Productions company and fellow executive producer for Fight Night. Hart and Smiley share insight on Chicken Man Williams and why they decided to invest in making a limited series out of a podcast, which they describe as a love letter to the city of Atlanta.
So, in the opening monologue, it is interesting when Chicken Man was talking about the differences between “Black folks” in Atlanta compared to Chicago, L.A., etc. Can you expound on that? Was Chicken Man’s vision about a growing Atlanta just about him having a better life with this party?
KEVIN HART I think when you’re talking about the ’70s and a period piece in general, there was a certain perception attached to people of color from the South, right? And what they were perceived as. And Chicken’s biggest thing was: We’re not dumb. We’re not idiots. We are smart. And once you understand how smart we are, you understand the big picture of change. They just need an example.
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Kevin Hart Hopes ‘Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist’ Will Be “the Big Thing of the Year”