Will Packer and Shaye Ogbonna talk Muhammad Ali 'Fight Night' series: 'It's an Atlanta story'

A new Peacock series, "Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist," spotlights Atlanta's pivotal role in one of the most dramatic—and lesser known—events in American history. The series recounts Muhammad Ali's 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta, which led to a high-stakes heist at a post-fight party attended by some of the nation's wealthiest and most dangerous figures. The star-studded cast, including Kevin Hart and Samuel L. Jackson, the series details Atlanta's transformation into a dynamic cultural hub.

GPB's Pamela Kirkland sat down with Will Packer, executive producer on the series and best known for his work on movies like "Ride Along," Girls Trip," and "Straight Outta Compton." And Shaye Ogbonna, the series creator, producer and writer.

Transcript

Pamela Kirkland: It's "Morning Edition." The biggest heist in Georgia history, and maybe the biggest in the history of the U.S., happened right here in Atlanta more than 50 years ago.

Fight Night Clip: Atlanta has pushed all the chips in. This will turn our little city into a major one. We are a vibrant, inclusive city that's open for business.

Pamela Kirkland: The new Peacock series "Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist," dives into the true story of a heist that took place during one of the most anticipated boxing matches in history. Muhammad Ali's 1970 comeback fight against Jerry quarry. Joining me now are Will Packer, award winning producer and executive producer of "Fight Night," and Shaye Ogbonna, writer, creator and producer of the project. Thank you both so much for being here.

Will Packer/Shay Ogbonna: Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Pamela Kirkland: Shaye, I want to start with you because this is truly an Atlanta story. How did the idea for the series come about? And for those who don't know, give us just a quick take on what the story actually is.

Shaye Ogbonna: It's about, the series of events that happened in Atlanta 50 years ago that kind of set Atlanta off in motion to become the city that we know today. And those two events were the Muhammad Ali fight. A lot of people don't know this, but Ali at the time was not a very popular man. He was a polarizing figure, and it was because he refused service in the Vietnam War. And because of that, he lost about two and a half years of his career. And this was his first fight back after this exile. And it was in Atlanta, of all places. No place would license in and of all places, Atlanta, Georgia, the city in the South that is, probably more associated with Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, stepped up to the plate and, and said, we'll hold you. And so the story, the show was about the fight and the subsequent robbery that happened, at a at a post-fight, party that was attended by some of the richest and most dangerous people in the country. And it was hosted by a local hustler named Chicken Man. And he's, played by the iconic Kevin Hart. 

Fight Night Clip: Who this? Chicken man? Chicken man? Chicken wing. But you don't speak chicken.

Pamela Kirkland: Will people know you for some of the mega-hits you've produced, like "Girls Trip," "Straight Outta Compton," "Fight Night," obviously, like Shaye was saying, you have a star studded cast with Kevin Hart, Taraji Henson, Samuel L Jackson. What drew you to the project and what was it like bringing all of this amazing talent together?

Will Packer: I was drawn to this story. I didn't know this story. And when it was pitched to me, I was like, wow. It has all the cinematic elements that as a producer, you look for, you salivate over when you've got an opportunity to jump into a true story, right? Oftentimes you're getting pitched things by writers, and they're just making up things that aren't even as crazy and absurd as what happened in this story. And so for this to be true, I was like, oh my gosh, like, this is an incredible narrative. I can't believe I don't know it. And I know a lot of people don't know it. And that totally lent itself to us getting the cast that we got. And so it was really about you've got this incredible true story. We leaned into it. A podcast had been done about it that we produced, and it gave us the opportunity now to bring it to life in an eight part series. The fact that it's eight parts lets you know that the fight and the, the actual incident of the heist, that is just our entry point.

Pamela Kirkland: Tell me a little bit about that. The series will be streaming on Peacock. I read that originally. Will you had thought about making this into a movie, but now you had this opportunity to make it into an eight part series. Why do you think that it lended itself to that kind of project?

Will Packer: I mean, there's obviously a breadth and depth to the storytelling that you have, and I live in a series that if I had handed this to Shane as a feature, it's like, listen, you got 90 minutes to 2 hours, make it happen, figure it out, wrap up every storyline, give every character an arc. It's only so much you can do, right? And this story is so far reaching and expansive, and it gives you an opportunity to not only see the prowess of the actors that, you know, these huge global household names like Sam Jackson and Kevin Hart, but also because we've got this, this room to stretch the narrative. We get to know some young guys. We got some incredible young actors and next generation of folks in this, like Cinco Walls and and, Miles Bullock, Melvyn Bragg, Chloe Bailey, Lori Harvey's in the piece. Like, there's some amazing young actors that now get a chance to have their story told, and they have arcs. And you can see not only the the it's a complicated narrative, which I like personally. I like it when you have protagonists that are flawed and you certainly have that here and then I like you, you also have antagonist that you can root for, and that is also certainly the case. So you see it from the POV of not only the folks that attended the party and got robbed, but also the robbers and also the folks that we're trying. To catch the robbers. Right. And so you've got multiple POVs that we've got an opportunity to share.

Pamela Kirkland: And then I want to ask both of you because you're both Atlantans. This really is an Atlanta story. What did it mean putting this project together as two people who know this city, native to this city. What did that mean for you and Shaye? I'll start with you.

Shaye Ogbonna: It gave what gave me. And it gave us an opportunity to tell the origin story of this city. I think every person that is that is from a place that they love it. They're a filmmaker or creative or storyteller. I think, like the dream is to be able to tell like a quintessential story about where you're from. And Atlanta being such a dynamic city and now being like this economic, creative, a cultural hub. We get to tell like, this was like an inflection. Atlanta. This this didn't happen. It felt like it happened overnight, but it was also like it was a part of it. It was it was a part of a plan, was a part of a hustle. A lot of people with with hustler DNA from all walks of life, whether you government, the criminal world, the business world or they all got together and essentially were a part of this building, this thing we called Atlanta and it really was it started with this moment. This was Atlanta's coming out party. So it gave us the opportunity to tell this amazing story about this amazing city from this uniquely African-American perspective. And this is a very American story in terms of the things we're dealing with you. That's why I feel like it's universal. Because it is. It is the story of Atlanta told from the southern African-American perspective. But it is a very American story.

Pamela Kirkland: And, Will, what about for you?

Will Packer: For me, I mean, you know, you know, I love Atlanta. You know, I like to I like to say, forever I love Atlanta, this is this is the crib I got to do right by. This city is done so, so right by me and supported me. It truly is. When you see it, you'll see that it's a love letter to Atlanta that we were all a part of, showcasing a different side of this city, that and that we haven't seen. And so that was important. It was important to get it right. One of the biggest compliments that, we got throughout this process was when we had the family of Chicken Man, the character that Kevin Hart plays, come to set and see everything that we created and get immersed in the environment and tell us that you guys got this right, like, that's the biggest compliment that you can have. That was huge.

Pamela Kirkland: You can catch "Fight Night" streaming on Peacock starting September 5th. Will Packer, Shaye Ogbonna Thank you both so much for speaking with me on Morning Edition.

Will Packer/Shay Ogbonna: Thanks for having us.