Riding high on the success of his third album Year of the Gentleman, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, Ne-Yo is about to expand his foray into Hollywood with a semi-autobiographical film that he likens to Eminem’s 8 Mile. Ne-Yo breaks the news exclusively to staging-rapup.kinsta.cloud’s Jessica Washington.

“We are putting together the next [film] right now as we speak, as a matter of fact. The name of the movie is Venice Beach and basically it’s going to be my 8 Mile, loosely based on [my] life, but not really,” says the 28-year-old singer/songwriter.

Ne-Yo is aiming for perfection with his first feature film since 2007’s Stomp the Yard. “There’s a lot of room for it to be either really good or really corny. We gotta make sure the script is right, so that’s why we ain’t start shooting yet. We gotta get it right.”

Production on Venice Beach is expected to commence “around December.”