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Tracing a legend back to its origin is not always an easy feat, but a story like Peacock's Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist warranted the hefty effort it took to bring it to audiences.
"It was intense, because you have to be accurate whenever you're recreating a story that's based on true events, you want to make sure you're doing it right, and you're being respectful to folks who may still be around or have family members that are still around," Executive Producer Will Packer told CNET in a recent interview.
It's a wild and frenetic tale where true crime meets optimism and ambition in a post-Civil Rights Atlanta, a city that was undergoing monumental economic and political shifts. Oct. 26, 1970, went down in history for two reasons: Muhammad Ali's return to the ring after a three-year banishment and an afterparty that turned into a million-dollar robbery. The heist culminated in a lengthy criminal investigation where some suspects wound up dead and became the stuff of local legend.
Peacock's eight-episode Fight Night limited series is based on a 2020 podcast that explores the events of that night in detail and features a star-studded cast. Kevin Hart plays hustler Gordon "Chicken Man" Williams, and Don Cheadle stars as Detective J.D. Hudson, two people who were at the center of the real-life story.
Other players include Samuel L. Jackson as Frank Moten, Terrence Howard as Cadillac Richie, Taraji P. Henson as Vivian, Sinqua Walls as Mac Rogers, Chloe Bailey as Lena and David Banner as Missouri Slim. The finale dropped Thursday, capping off a run that saw Chicken Man survive and gangsters like Frank and Cadillac Richie in a showdown in which one walks away and the other heads to prison.
Fight Night is more than an entertaining heist tale
Packer credits fellow executive producer Jeff Keating for his extensive research that kicked off almost a decade ago, where he contacted families and did a deep dive into this period in history. The project also included a series of researchers and experts who contributed not only to capturing the story's facts and figures authentically, but also fine details such as regional dialects, wardrobe and locations like the iconic Clermont Lounge, Paschal's restaurant and the Hyatt Regency hotel.
"We had an amazing dialect coach on the project that was making sure all our actors had support when it came to getting the intonations exactly right for these characters for that time period," said Packer.
Kevin Hart as Chicken Man and Taraji P. Henson as Vivian Thomas in Peacock's Fight Night.
Peacock TVWith history and fiction woven together, Fight Night may, at times, feel unbelievable. While Packer made it clear that characters like Frank Moten were made into fictionalized versions for the series, what was happening in the city of Atlanta at the time was true, and the creative team behind the series aimed to showcase that. In 1970, J.D. Hudson was the first Black detective lieutenant on his squad at a time when desegregation was still rolling out in a city going through expansive changes.
"Atlanta is a major market, a global city with global influence now, but it was not always that way," said Packer. "It was a Southern city -- like a lot of cities that went through a time of growth, a time of change and went through a time of turmoil."
While acknowledging the city's indisputable importance during the Civil Rights Movement, Packer added that the version we know now "was born on the backs of entrepreneurs, dreamers and hustlers -- hustlers who felt like this city could be more than what it was." Pointing to Hudson and Chicken Man as examples, he shared that they saw how Atlanta had a lot of potential, and there was intentionality in having the show illustrate who and what made it the metropolitan hotspot it is today.
"How do we make sure as we talk about this origin story of Atlanta -- how do we do it right? How do we tie it in so that you can see when in our show Frank Moten talks about a dream of Atlanta having a major airport and being a city that is Black-led with Black dollars and Black wealth -- how do we make that connection to what Atlanta is now?" Packer said. "All of those things really came true."
Is there more to Fight Night's characters' stories?
Peacock's series takes plenty of creative license in its account of events and the characters we see in Fight Night. To keep things above board legally and respectful of actual individuals and families connected to the story, many things were changed. Fans can look into the backstory by checking out the podcast or scouring the internet to learn more about the Ali fight, Chicken Man's fate, the robbery and everyone else tied to the heist -- including the real-life gangsters involved.
Packer described Jackson's version of Frank as "an amalgamation of Black gangsters" from around the country. "Our Frank Moten was a creation that we did based on the real Frank Moten and other people of that ilk during that time period," Packer said. Noting that there were limited business opportunities for Black people at that time, he added that sometimes that meant bending the rules in the spirit of legit entrepreneurship.
With that in mind, is there a chance that Packer will bring this stacked cast -- and characters like Cadillac Richie, Vivian or Mushmouth -- back to reprise their roles in a possible spinoff or new series connected to Fight Night? "I hope so. I think that would be cool," he said.
All eight episodes of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist are available to stream on Peacock now.