Christine Aylward:     Let's talk about Cheetah Vision. Let's talk about all your great projects.    Let's talk about your Lion's Gate deal.

Curtis “50 Cent Jackson”:      This is exciting for me. This is actually the third time I've attended Sundance. The first time, in 2009, we came to make everyone aware that we were creating Cheetah Vision as a film production company, and since then I've raised

                        $200 million for the company to produce films and as an attempt to deal with Lion's Gate. So, for me, I feel that I've progressed pretty good. I'm at a pretty good pace right now. I've just got to keep it up.

Today, I announced that I'll be doing a film project, "Tomorrow Today". It's actually an action film that I wrote. I'll be directing and it will be the first that I actually direct. I brought in Floyd Mayweather. He would constantly be calling me while I'm on set and I'd tell him that I'm busy, I've got to work. He didn't understand it so I explained to him further by allowing him to invest in the actual project. When people have a vested interest in things, they pay a lot more attention. So, he's coming in as a part of the financing and producing the actual project.   

CA:                 That's great. So, can you tell us a little bit about it?

CJ:                   I don't want to disclose the actual story because there will be some changes that happen to it before August because we shoot in August. Away from that I just wrapped the set up with myself, Bruce Willis and Ryan Phillipe. I had an amazing experience with them. We shot a lot of the projects in Grand Rapids because of the tax incentives there.  

CA:                 Right. There are so many right now.

CJ:                   I don't see limits to the things that I can actually accomplish, especially having people who made the transition from music into film.

CA:                 Can you talk about that for a second? I'm really curious about that, your transition from music into film and when it was that you said, "I want to go get into movies."

CJ:                   I've always had interest in film. I've always enjoyed watching them. There were points that I would see things that were so visually stimulating that I wished I could actually be in it, but music was consuming my time to the point that it was impossible. Recently, I've been able to make some adjustments for me to be a part of these film projects. 

I feel good. I'm actually happy. I work a lot. People might consider me a workaholic, but I whistle while I work. I'm enjoying myself. This is what I like actually doing. I'm really excited at the opportunity of developing the ability to be a part of business deals on a different level. 

CA:                 What is it that you're looking for in projects? What kind of movies do you want to make?

CJ:                   People ask that and they ask if there's a specific genre of film that I'm interested in, and it's different because I've seen so many different, great projects that I'd like to challenge myself as an actor and be a part of different pieces that are memorable.

I've have had the opportunity to work with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and within that experience I saw the difference between working with seasoned, experienced talent versus working with new actors, where they completely stuck to the line on the script versus the improvisation that you would get from an experienced actor.

I had different film genres. "Like Things Fall Apart", a project I committed to, I had to end up having to lose 54 pounds for the actual character in the film. It's harder because there's a smaller time period. Like Tom Hanks, they'll give him four months but he's Tom Hanks. You can break that actual production and come back four months later for his role in some of his films, and De Niro in "Raging Bull", Christian Bale in "The Machinist".

I had to do it in weeks because there's no money to take four months; you've got to get it done. It's an interesting project, though. It will be out shortly. It's myself, Mario Van Peebles and Ray Liotta. I just can't wait for everyone to see it. I'm excited.  

CA:                 What was the most rewarding part for you?

CJ:                   Finish. When they say, "This is the martini." It's the most rewarding part. It's like, "You mean to tell me I can have a bite to eat." It was exciting to do that, but I'm rewarded constantly. My son looks at me like I'm a super hero, and that's probably the biggest reward I've received so far.

CA:                 He must be so proud of his dad.

CJ:                   Yeah. I've got to do different things. The film projects will take me away, but there will be gaps in between and I get a chance to spend more time with my son/ He's getting older. He's 14 years old. If you asked me to make a wish this year, I would wish that everyone would recognize the actual art of my talent.

"Get Rich or Die Trying" came out and it's the largest debuting hip-hop album, so I can't ask for much more in that actual area. But, if you allow the success of your career to consume you to the point where you don't see the other things around you, you might come home and your child might be completely grown.

CA:                 Right. That's a danger.

CJ:                   I've seen it with Em. He made the choice to not tour as often to be with Hailie more.

CA:                 I want to hear more about your writing. You have this movie that you're writing now that you'll be directing. Can you talk just a little bit about that?

CJ:                   It's the third film actually. I wrote "Before I Self-Destruct" first, and I actually directed it, but it doesn't count as my directorial debut because it was low-budget. To me, I don't count it, but I actually distributed it within the packaging of my last album because I wanted my fans to actually hear it. It was supplied by the album that I created. I just added it to the packaging as additional value.

The writing process is completely different from music. In music, the first time, your idea has to be the right idea or you'll have a song playing and it will just be second guessing yourself. In film, you can write a movie a hundred times. You can write it, reevaluate what your thoughts were or how characters respond, rewrite it, and do it again until you feel like it's perfected or it's perfect.

On "Tomorrow Today" I've actually worked with other writers to clean it up, following what I've done. These are guys that are working on bigger projects that I respect they've worked on as writers. It's exciting to see them when we're going through the process of sorting out the actual ideas and them being impressed by what I've all ready written.

CA:                 So, when you think a little bit about, this is your gearing up for your directorial debut and the preparation process that you go through, are there certain directors who you really admire and whose work you just love?

CJ:                   Joel Schumacher is one of my favorite, but I've worked with Irwin Winkler. I've worked with Jim Sheridan. 

CA:                 I love Jim Sheridan.

CJ:                   Yeah. It was really, really good directors. Jim is tough. I think it was because he didn't want me to show up and not be completely into the actual project. He started off telling me that people didn't want the film to be good and "If you don't want to do it let's not go, period." 

CA:                 He was trying to test you.

CJ:                   Yeah.

CA:                 How do you deal with that? What do you say to him?

CJ:                   You let him actually be in control at that point. It's his job at the end of the day to get the right performance out of me in the actual film. It's the first project, so you don't walk into the situation as green as I was at that point, feeling like you know it all. I'm never really vulnerable in situations where I don't know.

I wrote a business book with Robert Greene called the "50th Law of Power", and I had to go to colleges to discuss the actual book and some of the things that we wrote in it. At that point I was sitting in front of a room full of people who literally achieved a higher education than I because I don't have a college degree in any way. I never went past the high school diploma mark.

At that point, for me to feel secure, I had to hold on to the fact that I've probably made $100 million more than everybody in the room. A lot of the business majors I feel develop a great short-term memory and retain information long enough to pass mid-terms but don't actually apply it to the work phase.

CA:                 Right, and if you have a business that has been that successful, you have a lot to talk about and share. How do you do it all? You are doing so much right now. You're writing, you direct, you're producing, you're a dad.

CJ:                   The writing project, ":Tomorrow Today", I've been writing that for a year in my free time. 

CA:                 Free time. You don't have any free time.

CJ:                   In travel. When I have to commute from one spot to the next, I have a lot of time. It feels like a lot when you're focused on it. I did four drafts of it before I started working with other writers to make it right, and I feel good about it.

I think people when they get a chance to see some of the things I've done…I've actually written "The Gun" with me, Val Kilmer, Anna Lynne McCord, and Danny Trejo on an actual project. It was really quiet that I actually wrote that project, but I'm proud of it. I'm excited about it. I think once you've read enough of them, it starts to get easier for you to see your actual ideas, and there are no time restraints, so it could take a year or two years for you to do that. I think that everyone who has interest in it should try it.

CA:                 So, what motivates you?

CJ:                   Well, I'm just going in different areas in my interests, creatively, in different areas that I'm excited about. Away from that, finances just create a freedom for me to be a part of different things and actually be an artist. I've felt like I needed things that I'm sure I don't need now. I went through a process. I think we're all kind of conditioned to want more than we actually need.

We get the home that costs $400,000 and start looking at the one that costs six up the block. It gives you something else to look forward to or to work for without motivation to say that this is the next level or this is what I'd like to achieve or this is what I want. It could be something smaller. It could be an outfit or a particular pair of shoes. When we look good, we feel good. People have interest in that.

CA:                 I think tons of people would want advice from you. You've been so successful, and, really, you're doing incredible things. What would you say to someone who wanted to be a musician or who wanted to be a film maker or an actor?

CJ:                   I'd say don't be afraid. Go out there and try it. People limit themselves. Fear doesn't allow people to actually be what they can. People are afraid. Even in an actual conference room or a board meeting, if someone raises their hand or provides information that you knew, that person deserves to be ahead of you in life. You can't be afraid to be out there.

There are a lot of places where people are vulnerable where they don't actually just say, "You know what? This is how I think or I feel about it." I deal with that all the time. From a music business perspective, we'll go through a process where you create a project and then you sit in a staff meeting full of people, and then hand pick people that we feel would be experts in the music business who have been around maybe 30 or 35 years. Really, to watch them look at each other and not want to say what they actually feel because they're afraid of being wrong.

It kind of leaves me in a space where I use my own judgment, and this is where Eminem becomes valuable to me. I can accept construction criticism from him because I'm sure that there's no ill will and nothing negative that he would want to see from me. Sometimes, you have friends that you see them and they don't look the same. Every time you see them their hand is out. They look a little different. Every time you see a person and their hand is out, they don't look as cute as they used to look. They look a lot different.

But, when you're successful and the person who gave you the opportunity is still very successful, it removes a lot of the things that would be there, a lot of obstacle, or things that you'd think would be reason for them to say different things or do different things.

CA:                 Yeah. You need someone. No one's right all the time. You need someone who you trust and get counsel from.

CJ:                   Yeah. Everyone needs that. It's just on different levels. Some people can function without asking very many questions. I'll just go and play the music and watch his response. If he's like, "Oh my God. This is crazy" then I'll keep it. If he's not really responding to it, if he's trying to figure out why I wrote it, I'll go "OK. Let me scrap that" because we write music for a living, both of us, and if the music is too complicated for him to get it then I'm sure that the average listener isn't going to get it