{"id":80656,"date":"2025-10-15T19:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/80656\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:30:07","slug":"mark-wahlberg-makes-pras-michel-documentary-on-fugees-founder-spy-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/80656\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Wahlberg Makes Pras Mich\u00e9l Documentary on Fugees Founder Spy Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn Oct. 3, Pras Mich\u00e9l<\/a> was scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison in a wild case tied to the $4.5 billion looting of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund<\/a> known as 1MDB. But lawyers for the Fugees founder, who is facing 22 years behind bars following a 2023 conviction, delayed sentencing for the third time as President Donald Trump considers pardoning the hip-hop star.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe move marked the latest development in a case that sparked international headlines thanks to Mich\u00e9l\u2019s stranger-than-fiction trajectory from Grammy winner to convicted spy<\/a>. Now, Mark Wahlberg<\/a> has struck a deal with Mich\u00e9l to make a feature documentary that limns his path from Yale-educated virtuoso to unlikely target of the FBI in its investigation into one of the world\u2019s biggest financial scandals.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEveryone is fascinated by all the twists and turns, like it\u2019s some kind of thriller,\u201d says Mich\u00e9l, who\u2019s speaking from Los Angeles and is restricted from leaving the country. \u201cBut for me, this is just my life \u2014 the real, messy, complicated truth of what I\u2019ve been living through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tProduced under Wahlberg\u2019s Unrealistic Ideas banner, the film will explore Mich\u00e9l\u2019s musical legacy as the still-touring artist behind the seminal \u201cGhetto Supastar (That Is What You Are),\u201d as well as the personal toll of navigating high-profile legal proceedings that culminated in a jury finding him guilty on 10 counts, including conspiracy, witness tampering and failing to register as an unregistered foreign agent of China. In August, Mich\u00e9l underwent emergency surgery to remove colon cancer, forcing him to miss a sentencing hearing in early September and the one earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\n\tWahlberg, who produced \u201cJuvies,\u201d a documentary about incarcerated teens, calls Mich\u00e9l a \u201clegend.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m rooting for Pras and excited to tell his story,\u201d the Oscar-nominated \u201cThe Departed\u201d actor says.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the center of the 1MDB case is Jho Low, the profligate financier of \u201cThe Wolf of Wall Street,\u201d whose Hollywood social circle included Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a>, Wahlberg\u2019s \u201cDeparted\u201d co-star. Back in\u00a02023, DiCaprio testified for the prosecution in Mich\u00e9l\u2019s trial. Like Mich\u00e9l, DiCaprio was a recipient of Low\u2019s spending, accepting gifts from the producer that included a $3.2 million Picasso and a $9 million Basquiat. Still, Mich\u00e9l is the only figure in the case looking at jail time. Low remains at large, believed to be in hiding in China.<\/p>\n

\n\tWahlberg will produce the documentary alongside Unrealistic Ideas president Archie Gips, who calls Mich\u00e9l\u2019s arc \u201cjust the kind of complex, shocking and emotional story\u201d the company finds compelling. \u201cIt\u2019s a surprising mix of pop culture and geopolitical intrigue that feels like a spy thriller come to life,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tEver since the FBI put Mich\u00e9l in its crosshairs in 2018, his friends have been distancing themselves. In a 2024 Variety profile<\/a>, he talked about how the investigation sent his life into chaos \u2014 noting an incident when federal agents visited the L.A. home of one of his closest friends, a married father of three.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLook, you get a call, FBI show up to your place \u2014 I don\u2019t care who you are, your heart is going up your throat,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, we just got a couple of questions for you. So can we come in?\u2019 Who\u2019s going to say no? So he let them in. The wife comes, sits in the living room, don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, but she\u2019s scared. And at some point, one of the agents goes, \u2018What\u2019s that? Do you smell that?\u2019 The wife defecated on herself. She was that scared. And the wife later told my friend, \u2018If you ever speak to Pras again, I\u2019ll take my three daughters and you\u2019ll never see us again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCrisis publicist Erica Dumas was one of the only people willing to take a call from the embattled star; she began working with him in the run-up to the trial. She also serves as a producer on the documentary.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPras put his complete trust in Mark, Archie and Stephen [Levinson] at Unrealistic Ideas to tell his story authentically, without any filters or agenda,\u201d she says. \u201cThis project doesn\u2019t shy away from the challenging aspects of Pras\u2019 recent experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe doc will include footage Mich\u00e9l shot on his phone during pivotal moments in the saga, like a meeting in China with a top CCP official who was sentenced to death by the Chinese government in 2022 for taking bribes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Oct. 3, Pras Mich\u00e9l was scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison in a wild case tied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,59360,409,111,139,69,62107],"class_list":{"0":"post-80656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-mark-wahlberg","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-pras-michu00e9l"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}