*Shaye Ogbonna, the visionary creator and executive producer of “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” recently discussed the inspiration and process behind the hit Peacock series.
“Fight Night” is based on the acclaimed iHeart true-crime podcast and takes viewers into the infamous heist that unfolded during Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight, exploring how the armed robbery not only altered one man’s life but also played a pivotal role in shaping Atlanta into the “Black Mecca.”
The ensemble cast includes Kevin Hart (Chicken Man), Samuel L. Jackson (“Frank Moten”), Taraji P. Henson (“Vivian Thomas”), Don Cheadle (“JD Hudson”), and Terrence Howard (“Cadillac Richie”). The series also features Chloe Bailey (“Lena Mosley”), Marsha Stephanie Blake (“Delores Hudson”), Dexter Darden (“Muhammad Ali”), Lori Harvey (“Lola Falana”), and Sinqua Walls (“McKinley Rogers”).
Here’s the official synopsis: When a hustler named Chicken Man (Hart) hosts an afterparty to celebrate the fight with a guest list of the country’s wealthiest, the night ends with the most brazen criminal underworld heist in Atlanta’s history. Suspected of masterminding the crime, Chicken Man is hellbent on clearing his name but must convince his old adversary, J.D. Hudson (Cheadle), one of the first Black detectives in the city’s desegregated police force, who is tasked with bringing those responsible to justice.
In our exclusive interview with Ogbonna, we asked what inspired the creation of the series and how he approached blending a true crime story with the cultural and historical elements of 1970s Atlanta.
“I’m a big history buff. I’m a big African-American history buff. I love stories. I love crime stories. I love stories that are kind of centralized around an event. And then you have these two characters… this cop who’s one of the first black detectives in Atlanta, J.D. Hudson, and you have Gordon ‘Chicken Man’ Williams, a local hustler, who are from two different sides of the spectrum who have to come together to try to solve this case,” Ogbonna explained.
“I’m from the area where this all went down, so there was a personal responsibility there,” he added.
“I’ve always wanted to center marginalized voices and marginalized characters in mainstream storytelling. It’s just like, how do we tell this great story about these dynamic characters who are all at the same place, this inflection point? And the city is also at that point… the city of Atlanta becomes a character,” Ogbonna explained.
“The podcast was really a vital resource in terms of understanding the events and being able to map them out. Our work as creatives was adding meat on the bone with these characters… that we give them storylines, that we go into their worlds and we humanize them. Having the limited series as a format helped us do that.”
Executive Producer Will Packer said he was “drawn to the true story cinematic elements that already existed before I got my hands on it.”
“The idea of this off-the-books, unsanctioned Muhammad Ali fight, at a time when he was a very polarizing figure in this country. We think of Muhammad Ali, and he is one of the most beloved athletes of all time. But there was a time when he was a very polarizing figure,” Packer told EUR exclsusively. “He refused to go to Vietnam, he said it was against his morals. A lot of people said, you know what, you’re turning your back on your country, your country needs you the most, you’re a draft dodger. He got blackballed, he could not do what was his livelihood, to go out and be a boxer.”
Packer continued, “You had some folks in Atlanta that said, we’re gonna take advantage of that fact. New York you won’t take him, California you won’t take him, Vegas you won’t take him. We’ll take him. Because they saw it as an opportunity to raise their profile for the city. The fact that that happened and attracted top athletes and entertainers and gangsters from all over the country, who then came down to Atlanta, went to an underground casino night thrown by a local hustler, and then all got robbed. That to me, I was like, how do I not know this story? That story’s crazy.”
He added, “So for me, that’s what attracted me to it. We try to tell it in such a way that was true to the source material, true to the true story but also allowed us license to augment the story and tell it in a way that would be engaging and interesting to contemporary audiences.”
The first three episodes of “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” debuted September 5 on Peacock with new episodes premiering every Thursday through October 10.
Watch our full conversation with Shaye Ogbonna via the clip below.
READ MORE FROM EURWEB.COM: Don Cheadle, Dexter Darden Unpack Roles in ‘Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist’ | EUR Video Exclusive
