The boxing icon called out Hulu on social media
Tyson hit out again at Hulu. © Hollywood To You / Star Max / GC Images
Mike Tyson has blasted American streaming service Hulu for making a biographical series about his life yet doing so without his approval and providing him with compensation.
In an Instagram post at the weekend, Tyson made it clear that he doesn’t support the series, called ‘Mike’, and said that Hulu “is the streaming version of the slave master.”
“They stole my story and didn’t pay me,” he further claimed.
Over on Twitter, the Brooklynite once dubbed the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ also said that Hulu “stole” his story.
“They’re Goliath and I’m David. Heads will roll for this,” he promised.
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On the same social media network, Tyson also thanked UFC president Dana White for not selling him out and received support from Nate Diaz.
“Hulu tried to desperately pay my brother [Dana White] millions without offering me a dollar to promote their slave master take over story about my life,” Tyson tweeted.
“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.”
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I’m wit Mike Fuck you hulu pic.twitter.com/IC7ng7bMg0
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) August 6, 2022
Ramping up his accusations against Hulu, which is majority owned by the Walt Disney Company and is known for the multi-award-winning Handmaid’s Tale series, Tyson further slammed the streaming service to Entertainment Tonight in a passionate statement.
“My life rights option expired years ago,” Tyson noted.
“[But] Hulu nor any of their supercilious team ever tried to engage in any negotiations with this black man. In their eyes I am still just a n****r on the auction block ready to be sold for their profit without any regard for my worth or my family,” the 56-year-old raged.
“They say this story is an exploration of a black man. It’s more like an exploitation of a black man.
“Hulu thinks their tracks are covered by hiring black sacrificial lambs to play the part as frontmen for their backdoor robbery is appalling. [But] I will always remember this blatant disregard of my dignity,” Tyson vowed.
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Tyson has opposed Hulu’s production about his life since it ordered the limited series in February last year.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, he accused them of “cultural misappropriation” and said such an unauthorized account of a black man’s life “on the heels of social disparities in our country” represented a “prime example” of its “corporate greed”.
‘Mike’ will star Moonlight actor Trevante Rhodes as Tyson and details “the tumultuous ups and downs of Tyson’s boxing career and personal life – from being a beloved global athlete to a pariah and back again,” Hulu’s official synopsis claims.
Consisting of eight episodes, it will premier on August 25 and is an “unbiased story” that leaves its audience to “decide what they think or feel” according to showrunner Karin Gist.
“Challenging what people think they know about Mike and hoping that they come away from the series with something else to think about,” is apparently Hulu’s primary motive with regards to the series, Gist explained to Deadline at a critics panel last week.
“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,” Gist added.
Meanwhile, though, Tyson is working on his own production about his fascinating life story which will feature A-list Hollywood superstar Jamie Foxx and be directed by Training Day auteur Antoine Fuqua.
