Kevin Hart Hopes ‘Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist’ Will Be “the Big Thing of the Year”

In the opening monologue of the first episode of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams, played by Kevin Hart, lays the foundation for Peacock’s eight-part limited series (which is now streaming its first three episodes).

“You know they burned Atlanta to the ground,” Chicken Man tells his friend, who runs a funeral home and is setting a body in a casket. “They burned it down to the ashes, just like they did in that old Gone with the Wind motherfucker. Yeah, but Atlanta rose up, rebuilt! How we do that? Because of us. Because of Black folks, that’s how we did it. They did the same thing in Chicago, too. But the difference is we’re not like Chicago, not one bit. We’re not like Chicago, New York, L.A., no. Down here, we’re different. Know why we’re different? Because down, here n***as think different, we moves different. We know our history, but we don’t let our history fuck up our hustle.”

Based on a 2020 iHeart true-crime podcast about actual events that happened in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1970, Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist tells the story of Chicken Man, a small-time Atlanta hustler who runs a gambling-betting system in the southern city’s streets. But he wants something bigger and better for himself and his family (consisting of his pious wife and kids, and a mistress named Vivian Thomas, played by Taraji P. Henson). He also wants something better for the city he dearly loves and calls home.

But Chicken Man and his city will face a barrage of formidable circumstances, including what many consider the most brazen armed-robbery in Atlanta’s history set amid the backdrop of an unsanctioned fight for the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, who, at the time, was exiled from boxing due to his opposition to the Vietnam War and refusal to be drafted.

As it was originally told in podcast form (which was produced by Will Packer, who is an executive producer here), Chicken Man Williams set up a big gambling afterparty to take place at a house. Top leaders from organized crime from all over the country were invited, including New York boss Frank Moten (played by Samuel L. Jackson) and New Jersey crime leader Cadillac Richie (Terrence Howard). Each gangster is told no guns are allowed, and Chicken Man hoped the party would usher him to the next plateau of success. But masked robbers infiltrate with shotguns and pistols; money and jewelry are taken and the partygoers are made to strip down to their underwear in the basement and be quiet for hours as new guests arrived to meet the same fate.

After the robbers get their fill and leave, the mob bosses are furious and want revenge. The first person they turn their ire on is Chicken Man. Of course, he’s the one who invited them to the party, told them no guns and put the whole event together. But Chicken Man is a victim in the robbery, too. He is now on the run from gangsters who want him dead and the Atlanta P.D., and is trying to prove his innocence. He reluctantly solicits the help of a Black Atlanta Police Detective who once put him in prison, J.D. Hudson (played by Don Cheadle). Chicken Man hopes Hudson will help him find the actual thieves and prove his innocence to the police and to the mobsters who want him dead.

The Hollywood Reporter recently caught up with Hart and Bryan Smiley, Hart’s partner at his Hartbeat Productions company and fellow executive producer for Fight Night. Hart and Smiley share insight on Chicken Man Williams and why they decided to invest in making a limited series out of a podcast, which they describe as a love letter to the city of Atlanta.

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So, in the opening monologue, it is interesting when Chicken Man was talking about the differences between “Black folks” in Atlanta compared to Chicago, L.A., etc. Can you expound on that? Was Chicken Man’s vision about a growing Atlanta just about him having a better life with this party?

KEVIN HART I think when you’re talking about the ’70s and a period piece in general, there was a certain perception attached to people of color from the South, right? And what they were perceived as. And Chicken’s biggest thing was: We’re not dumb. We’re not idiots. We are smart. And once you understand how smart we are, you understand the big picture of change. They just need an example.

So, Chicken Man wanted to be the example for smart business-minded opportunities, connectivity amongst the cities of some of the biggest names and the biggest gangsters. And I think because of that world of thought, that idea, sometimes in voicing any type of feeling about Atlanta, it came with… his chest was out, right? “I know what you think, even though you didn’t say it, I know what you think about us. It’s up to me to make you think differently. And once I get one person to think differently, well, that thought is going to transpire through all.” That’s what that monologue is.

That monologue is any ear that I get that’s going to listen. “I am going to make you understand what I am about to do, because then I got one more voice saying what Chicken Man is out here doing. One more voice will help spread the energy and the message.” So, that’s how hustlers operate. It’s all about transferring dialogue, how many people can you get to echo how you feel and how you say, how you sound? That’s what Chicken Man was doing.

Bryan, from the first episode to the last, the series harkens back to ‘70s classic films such as Let’s Do It Again or Uptown Saturday Night. Was that the vibe you were going for when putting together this series that feels like a time machine into the 1970s?

BRYAN SMILEY You named some really amazing films that of course were inspiration for what we were trying to achieve, and I believe we really did achieve. But ultimately, this story really stands apart. And it really is a love letter to Atlanta. We have the most amazing cast and, quite frankly, an amazing crew, too. We know from our direction of Craig Brewer, who kind of launched the series, and our showrunner Shaye [Ogbonna] that we did something very very special here. And I think it will be an evergreen series if you want to come back to it year after year.

HART The biggest priority here was having something in this time where you can give the presentation of a premium cultural IP. And what I mean by that is getting some of the biggest names in the business to share the screen together and all have the same goal at hand, which is to make an amazing piece of content. And have something that’s deemed to be the big thing of the year, because of the collaboration. How do you do that? How do you present the right piece of material to the right version of that? And I want to go to the Boomerangs, I want to go to the Harlem Nights. I want to go to the projects that you just mentioned, the Uptown Saturday Night. There’s so many things that we have, that all representation has, but the separation gap between them all is so wide. So, how do we close that gap up? How do we give a more consistent version of what that could be? And do it in a dope amazing way.

Well, that’s what Hartbeat is striving to do. We’re striving to solve that particular question correctly by giving you what we think is content needed and necessary, and aligning ourselves with great partners — in Peacock, in Will Packer and his production company. How do we get some of the best creators, writers, visionaries at the same table to execute on doing the things that we think are some of the best representations of our story; some of the best representation of the biggest moments that we have in time; how do we present that to audiences that don’t know about stories but they need to know? That’s the priority.

The series is serious, but who made you laugh on set?

HART Chloe Bailey is very funny. Very, very funny! Don [Cheadle] is forever a jackass that I’m going to love because of our rapport. Getting to work with him in a manner like we did was refreshing. Samuel L. Jackson! Sam’s mean ass! (Laughs) I love Sam — there’s only one Samuel L. Jackson, and working with Sam is a lesson every single day. I can go down the list, shout outs to Taraji [P. Henson] and Terrence [Howard], as well. Everybody played a great piece of value in making our days better. So, picking just one wouldn’t be fun.

The first three episodes of Fight Night are now streaming on Peacock, with new episodes releasing Thursdays.