NOTORIOUS B.I.G. MOVIE CAST JAMAL 'GRAVY' WOOLARD, ANGELA BASSETT,DEREK LUKE, ANTHONY MACKIE

According to the Hollywood Reporter Fox Searchlight has found the actor Jamal 'Gravy' Woolard to play the lead of slain rapper Biggie Smalls in the upcoming bio pic film "Notorious". The production company behind the film held an open casting call for unknown hopefuls. Click here to listen to Gravy's  rhyming skills on his myspace page. Derek Luke, Angela Bassett and Anthony Mackie also have been cast in the movie, Searchlight said. Luke will play Biggie record producer Sean "Diddy" Combs, who offscreen is an exec producer on the film. Mackie will play rival rapper Tupac Shakur, while Bassett will play Biggie's mother Voletta Wallace.

More than 100 Biggie wannabes, many of them nonpros and all with the requisite size, turned out to show off their rapping and impersonation skills.

Woolard, who also is known as Gravy, is not a total unknown. He has released a number of albums, though he's perhaps best known for being shot before a radio appearance outside the New York hip-hop station Hot 97 two years ago, after which he proceeded with the interview and became a part of hip-hop lore.

Like Biggie, Woolard was a drug dealer before he became a rapper. He had released a number of albums on indie labels in the 1990s before being signed by Warner Bros.

The movie directed George Tillman Jr. goes into production this month and will be released theatrically in January 2009.

Voletta Wallace cited "Jamal's charming personality, warm spirit, wonderful sense of humor and beautiful smile" as reasons for the casting. "He is a talented and charismatic actor, and I am excited that he will bring Christopher's character to life," she said. source