John Singleton will be directing the Tupac Shakur biopic, according to a Variety report.

Singleton had expressed deep interest in taking this project on from before. Singleton had worked with Shakur on the documentary Poetic Justice and also came to be close to his family after the rapper's death.

"Tupac was the guy who I planned to do a lifetime of films with," Singleton told the publication. "His passing deeply affected my life as well as countless people in this world. His life story is as important to my generation."

In September last year, the development of the project was fast-tracked as Emmett/Furla/Oasis films came on board to co-produce and co-finance the project with Creek Productions.

The film will be based on a script written by Eddie Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft.  The project, which tells the story of the iconic rapper, was hot property and several companies were bidding for the rights to partner on the film with Morgan Creek.

The company's president, David Robinson, eventually chose to seal the deal with Emmett/Furla/Oasis. Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, will be a producer on the film.

The film is scheduled to go into production in February of 2014, with a $45 million budget.

Morgan Creek has bought the rights to Tupac's musical catalog for use in the film.

Tupac saw immense success as an artist. His double disc album, All Eyez on Me(1996), is still one of the best selling hip-hop albums of all time. It was the last album he released while he was alive. He was also known for his run-ins with the law -- having been arrested on counts of gun violence and sexual assault -- and also did time in prison. In 1996, Tupac met an untimely death at the age of 25, when he was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting. He was returning from a Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Watch Tupac being resurrected for fans via a hologram at the Coachella music festival last year:

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