Vivica Fox to Direct BET+ Film “The First Lady Of BMF: The Tonesa Welch Story”

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Vivica Fox to Direct BET+ Film “The First Lady Of BMF: The Tonesa Welch Story”

Vivica Fox is stepping behind the camera for BET once again. The “Kill Bill” actress directed the 2021 short “Through Her Eyes” for BET Her and will follow it up by helming BET+’s “The First Lady of BMF: The Tonesa Welch Story.” Deadline confirmed that the film has been greenlit.

Written by Gabrielle Collins (“Merry Switchmas”), the pic is “inspired by the true life of Detroit native Tonesa Welch, which was first chronicled in American Gangster: Trap Queens, also from the streamer,” per the source. “The biopic charts Welch’s rise from teen mom to drug dealer to being labeled by federal prosecutors as ‘The First Lady of BMF.’ Dreams and desires, craftiness and creativity, hustle and hard work, Welch tells a harrowing story about riches, remorse, personal responsibility, and redemption set amidst the lavishness and extreme violence of Detroit’s crack era and America’s ‘war on drugs.'”

“The First Lady of BMF: The Tonesa Welch Story” is set to debut on BET+ later this year.

Fox’s on-screen credits include “Independence Day,” “Booty Call,” and “Empire.”