Rapper Rick Ross scooped the metro Atlanta mansion from foreclosure five years ago
A sequel about fictional African royalty 30 years in the making has picked one of metro Atlanta’s most regal spreads as a primary filming location.
The ginormous Fayetteville estate that Atlanta’s favorite heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield built—and later lost to foreclosure—is acting as a film set now for Coming 2 America, a follow-up to the 1988 Eddie Murphy smash.
That’s according to the southside palace’s current owner, rapper Rick Ross, who spilled the news during a recent radio interview in Los Angeles, describing the original comedy as his favorite movie and the sequel as “dope,” as the AJC reports.
The Paramount film, which has brought Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall back for their respective roles, is largely being filmed in several Peach State locations this summer, with an expected opening next August.
Ross’s famed, 54,000 square-foot mansion sits on 104 acres, has more than 100 rooms, a bowling alley and theater, and costs more than $1 million annually to maintain, as Holyfield once told reporters.
The backyard swimming pool has been described as among the country’s largest.
According to the AJC, the property also hosted a 2018 remake of SuperFly and filming for Fox’s Star television show. Ross also operates a record label on site.
Having built the place in 1994, Holyfield forfeited Georgia’s largest single-family home and so many ancillary buildings to the bank in 2012 for $7.5 million, reportedly owing more than twice that amount.
According to Redfin, Ross paid a discounted $5.8 million for the 12-bedroom manse in 2014—and likely celebrated in a dining room that can host 100 people.