Kevin Hart starring in series about heist on Ali’s comeback night in Atlanta
Kevin Hart, who recently shot the third season of Roku’s “Die Hart” in Atlanta, will be back in town to shoot a new Peacock dramatic series “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” on February 5, 2024.
Hart and Atlanta’s own Will Packer will produce the series. Hart will star as well.
Samuel L. Jackson is also part of the series.
The series tells the story of a real-life armed robbery during the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta.
The event brought worldwide attention to the city as celebrities galore — from Sidney Poitier to Arthur Ashe to Diana Ross — attended the fight, then partied at a VIP gala at the new Hyatt Regency downtown. But an alternative party that attracted hustlers nationwide went awry when masked men with shotguns stripped partygoers naked, piled them in a basement and robbed them of at least $1 million in cash, jewelry and other valuables.
The story will focus on real-life hustler Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams and Atlanta’s first black detective, JD Hudson, who tried to figure out what went down that night.
“Fight Night” is based on a Packer-produced podcast of the same name that came out in 2020.
In 2020, Packer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he first heard about this 1970 story two years ago from then V-103 host Kenny Burns and found it fascinating. “We actually thought it could be a movie,” he said.
Instead, it’s now a limited series, giving Packer more time to tell the story.
Packer has shot most of his movies in Atlanta, from “Night School” and “Girls Trip” to the recent Disney+ Christmas film “Dashing Through the Snow.” He has also worked with Hart in two “Think Like a Man” movies and two “Ride Along” films.
