Jim Sheridan has signed on to direct rapper 50 Cent in the gangster movie, Locked and Loaded. A Paramount Pictures/MTV Films production, it tells the story of an orphan who turns away from his life as a drug dealer and pursues his passion as a rap singer.

The screenplay is by Terence Winter, a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos, and it is expected to start shooting early next year. Sheridan is also committed to directing an updated remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film, Ikiru, for DreamWorks, and he is working on the screenplay with writer Richard Price.