Raekwon’s Ambitious Wu-Tang Clan Film Idea

Raekwon has revealed that Wu-Tang Clan was on the verge of working on a feature film chronicling the group’s story with none other than Leonardo DiCaprio at one point in his recent interview.

During a compelling appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the Wu-Tang Clan revealed his ambitious vision for a full-scale Wu-Tang Clan movie after Rogan suggested none other than Quentin Tarantino as the ideal director. The rapper spoke passionately about what such a film could mean for fans and the group’s legacy, contrasting the concept with Hulu’s series, Wu-Tang: An American Saga.

At first, he expressed confidence in Tarantino’s ability to bring the gritty, authentic vibe necessary to capture the crew’s journey after Rogan laid out a synopsis of how the film could start. “Tell Quentin [Tarantino] to holla at me,” Raekwon said.

The rapper’s dream took an intriguing turn as he recounted a past meeting with DiCaprio to discuss the idea. Believe it or not, A Tribe Called Quest frontman Q-Tip also played a major roll in the early motion of the brainstorming stages of the project. “Q-Tip, a good friend of mine, he had me and Leonardo [DiCaprio] sit down,” he said. We met at this small pizza shop in Brooklyn, one of his favorite spots.”

Raekwon continued, revealing DiCaprio was a longtime Wu-Tang fan and showed immense enthusiasm for the project. “He was like, ‘Yo, Chef, what we got to do, yo, who do we need to talk to?’”

Raekwon took the idea to RZA, Wu-Tang’s de facto leader, and attempted to convince him to pivot from the Hulu series toward a full-length feature film. “I told RZA, ‘Before we do this Hulu thing, I think we need to make a realistic, real-life movie of us’,” he said. “It shouldn’t be nothing that we should play with because people need to know our real story.”

Despite RZA’s interest in the concept, he had already committed to Hulu’s project, which Raekwon admitted he was some what disappointed at the time, but still remains hopeful. “At the end of the day, the Clan is the best,” he said. “But one day, maybe I might get a chance to show my version of it.”

Raekwon concluded by giving fans a taste of what his creative palette is salivating over when it comes to the the full-fledged meat and potatoes of the plot for a Wu-Tang Clan film. His vision for the film is grand, describing it as a mix of an Italian mobster flick and with a classic 90s era Black crime thriller feature. “It would be like a slash of Goodfellas and Menace II Society mixed in one,” he explained. The rapper believes a movie would offer a raw, unfiltered look at Wu-Tang’s rise to greatness, something he feels has yet to be fully captured. “It can still be made,” he said. “Just because there’s a Hulu series, that doesn’t mean s###.”

This isn’t the first time Raekwon has addressed the Wu-Tang Clan film project with DiCaprio. In 2021 Rolling Stone published an excerpt from Raekwon’s memoir “From Staircase To Stage: The Story Of Raekwon And Wu-Tang Clan” in which the New York native recalls being inspired by the success of N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton.” He wanted to make a similar movie for Wu-Tang Clan while RZA wanted a scripted series.

“I was against the deal because I didn’t like the terms, the money, any of it.,” Raekwon said of RZA’s plan for a Wu-Tang series. “I kept telling RZA to look at Straight Outta Compton, which made $200 million dollars worldwide and was the highest-grossing movie by a black director in history. It made no sense to me to sell our story for a TV series where nobody would walk away with real money. Everybody except RZA, that is, because he was getting more on the deal — as an executive producer, writer, creator, composer, and I’m sure a few other ways we’ll never know about.”

Watch the clip from the interview in the post above.