There is a Mike Tyson miniseries premiering on Hulu at the end of this month. It’s completely unauthorized, with Mike Tyson posting a couple of times about how Hulu “stole his story and didn’t pay [him].” He also says they tried to collaborate with and pay UFC president Dana White, who refused. It’s unclear whether Hulu or the production team ever tried to collaborate with Mike at all, but it seems like they didn’t based on his posts and what the showrunner said at a recent panel about wanting to tell an “unbiased story.”
Mike Tyson took to social media to take a jab at Hulu over Mike, the series about his life. The former boxer is not happy that the streaming service produced a biographical series without his permission or compensation for telling his story.
“Don’t let Hulu fool you. I don’t support their story about my life. It’s not 1822. It’s 2022,” read Tyson’s statement on Instagram. “They stole my life story and didn’t pay me. To Hulu executives I’m just a n****r they can sell on the auction block.”
On the social media post, Tyson captioned, “Hulu is the streaming version of the slave master. They stole my story and didn’t pay me.”
Tyson’s latest post came after another publication he made on the same social media platform where he praised UFC president Dana White for allegedly refusing to promote the Hulu series.
“Hulu tried to desperately pay my brother @danawhite millions without offering me a dollar to promote their slave master take over story about my life,” Tyson claimed in a statement posted on Instagram. “He turned it down because he honors friendship and treating people with dignity. I’ll never forget what he did for me just like I’ll never forget what Hulu stole from me.”
At Hulu’s Television Critics Tour panel on Thursday, the project’s showrunner, Karen Gist, addressed the unauthorized nature of the project. “We just wanted to tell an unbiased story and have the audience decide what they think or feel,” Gist said. “Challenging what people think they know about Mike and hoping that they come away from the series with something else to think about. Whether you like him or hate him, does the story make you question how complicit society has been? That was the intention, that was the North Star for the writers’ room as we were crafting stories.”
This was not the first time the heavyweight champion slammed Hulu for the biopic series. Back in February 2021, Tyson also took to Instagram to raise his voice against the streamer after announcing the project.
“Hulu’s announcement to do an unauthorized mini-series of the Tyson story without compensation, although unfortunate, isn’t surprising,” the boxer said in a now-deleted post. “This announcement on the heels of social disparities in our country is a prime example of how Hulu’s corporate greed led to this tone-deaf cultural misappropriation of the Tyson life story. To make this announcement during Black History Month only confirms Hulu’s concern for dollars over respect for black story rights. Hollywood needs to be more sensitive to black experiences especially after all that has transpired in 2020.”
“Mike” is set to premiere on August 25 on Hulu. The series was created by Steven Rogers (I, Tonya) and it stars Trevante Rhodes. Other cast members include Russell Hornsby, Harvey Keitel, Laura Harrier, and Li Eubanks.
After reading Mike and the showrunner’s comments, and seeing that the series was created by someone from I,Tonya, I got curious about the racial makeup of the production team. The creator is white and so are a bunch of the producers (including Margot Robbie?), but the showrunner quoted in the Deadline article and several other writers and producers are Black. So hopefully the story that Mike didn’t approve is still told in a nuanced and sensitive way. But Hulu keeps doing this, huh? Pam & Tommy was made without the involvement or permission of Pam or Tommy. Apparently, they were both against it coming out. This pattern by Hulu seems exploitative. And for what it’s worth, Jamie Foxx and Antoine Fuqua were (are? unclear where it is in the development process) working on a different biopic of Mike Tyson, which Mike is supportive of. So this definitely seems like a Hulu problem and not a Mike problem.
Photos credit: Avalon.red, Cover Images and via Instagram
On the one hand, enough with the profiting of yt people off of Black stories.
On the other hand, Mike Tyson is a rapist and a woman beater, so I’m not ever going to waste a minute of my time feeling bad for him. No excuse for Hulu pulling this crap, but Mike Tyson is not worth the PR shine up and cuddly image people have given him in recent years.
THANK YOU. I don’t care how he feels about it tbh
Exactly what you said.
Yeah, had to roll my eyes at, “He turned it down because he honors friendship and treating people with dignity.” People will say two things can be true, and they’re right. Just hoping that starts getting applied to the female sex for non-violent offenses (and sometimes not even actual offenses, just complete misunderstandings) too.
Tommy Lee eventually came around to P&T and Sebastian Stan semiregularly blows smoke up that abuser’s ass. Pam on the other hand is still vehemently against it while people are Emmy campaigning off of her trauma.
Mike Tyson is a terrible person. He also shouldn’t have his story stolen from him. Both things can be true imo.
Hulu is trash though for continually exploiting people and claiming its for their own good bc of the dialogue it opens up. Which is bullshit bc not once has anyone involved in P&T ever said anything thoughtful about consent in the 6 mos since it premiered.
“Mike Tyson is a terrible person. He also shouldn’t have his story stolen from him. Both things can be true…” I agree. Kinda looks like Hulu aspires to be the Kitty Kelley of teevee. Didn’t / won’t watch Pam, even though I found her support of Assange gross. Ditto for Mike – we already know credible allegations against him, no need to sit through biopic that is missing any of his firsthand input.
This is a very serious question for any entertainment lawyers, how can Hulu get away with out permission, cant they be sued to oblivion!? How can you legally make a story about someones name and likeness without consent?
The rule you’re probably thinking of is a CA law against using someone’s likeness to *sell a product* without their permission. Think buying photos of Mike Tyson and using them in your billboard for your used car dealership.
It doesn’t prevent movies or books about the lives of real people. They can sue if the movies or books defame them, but banning such things altogether would mean that no one could do investigative journalism about Donald Trump and publish a book with their findings or write a biopic of the royals.
Producers often make shows about public people without their permission or compensation. How many tv movies have been made about the Queen, Princess Margaret, Diana, Diana & Charles, William & Kate and now Harry & Meghan? There have been loads. There were a couple about Steve Jobs too. I don’t think he gave permission or was paid.
Yes please, let’s talk about dignity.
I’d like to talk about Nicole Brown Simpsons dignity. And Ron Goldmans.
And maybe the dignity of actually paying the money Tyson owes their estates.
How about how Mike ended their story, not just made tv about it.
F&ck Tyson.
I…think you’re thinking about OJ Simpson. Mike Tyson has done horrible things, but not those horrible things.
Omg I’m a dummy, TY. Coffee and me need to get reacquainted.
Tyson is still a pos but he ain’t Simpson.
Rapist.
Look. I’ll extend sympathy to Pam Anderson and glare at the people who didn’t want to involve someone who was victimized in a work about her life. I’m not going to do the same for Mike Tyson, a rapist and an abuser.
I’m open to the idea that Hulu should find something else to focus on, because frankly Tyson has more of an entertainment career than he ought to at this point, but paying him (which would probably also mean giving him some control over the story) would be an injustice. Does he also think that Robin Givens should be paid? Should the many less famous people who’d be featured in a biopic be paid? Surely the people who Tyson has made suffer deserve compensation at least as much as he does, especially since many of them aren’t in the public eye.
I’m most concerned for the Black women he abused and how he continues to be granted redemption, regardless of who tells his story.
Did he ever pay Robin Givens what she was owed?
This is something he just has to deal with the way his victims had to deal with him abuse and rape.
Freedom of speech means freedom to make a film about someone’s life. Mike Tyson is enough of a public figure with enough known facts that you can make a series about him without having to come to him for the rights.
He’s not someone who deserves to control the narrative of his life story. He has the means to tell his own version, and apparently will.
One note on I, Tonya. The figure skating community was really upset over how the film downplayed Tonya’s complicity in the situation. Yes, important to see the abuse that was happening and how she wasn’t in control, but she was far more involved than the film let on. Interesting to see how this project works out.