oxing legend Mike Tyson is calling out Hulu over their upcoming series about his life, Mike, which he says was developed without his approval.
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Mike Tyson Accuses Hulu of 'Stealing' His Life Story for New Series: 'Heads Will Roll for This'
Jason Duaine Hahn - Yesterday 10:42 PM
Boxing legend Mike Tyson is calling out Hulu over their upcoming series about his life, Mike, which he says was developed without his approval.
Alfonso Bresciani/Hulu; Jason Merritt/Getty
© Provided by People
Alfonso Bresciani/Hulu; Jason Merritt/Getty
In a series of strongly-worded social media posts over the weekend, the 56-year-old took aim at the streaming service and accused them of stealing his story.
"Don't let Hulu fool you. I don't support their story about my life," Tyson, the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title, wrote in an Instagram post. "They stole my life story and didn't pay me."
"To Hulu executives I'm just a they can sell on the auction block," he added.
Tyson also claimed that UFC president Dana White turned down an opportunity to promote the show, which stars Trevante Rhodes as the famed boxer.
Hulu tried to desperately pay my brother @danawhite millions without offering me a dollar to promote their slave master take over story about my life," he said in the post, which included a picture of him and White. "He turned it down because he honors friendship and treating people with dignity. I'll never forget what he did for me just like I'll never forget what Hulu stole from me."
Hulu's model of stealing life rights of celebrities is egregiously greedy #headswillroll," Tyson tweeted the next day.
Hulu declined to comment about Tyson's posts when reached by PEOPLE on Monday afternoon. The Walt Disney Company owns a majority stake in the streaming platform.
During the Television Critics Awards last week, Mike showrunner Karen Gist said she wanted to tell an "unbiased story" about Tyson for the series. Viewers will "decide what they think or feel," she said.
Challenging what people think they know about Mike and hoping that they come away from the series with something else to think about," she said. "Whether you like him or hate him, does the story make you question how complicit society has been? That was the intention, that was the North Star for the writers' room as we were crafting stories."
It is common for studios to make movies or TV shows without the approval of the people they are about. While discussing Hustlers, a 2019 film about a team of strippers inspired by real-life people, attorney John L. Geiger told IndieWire that most studios do not need a subject's life rights before moving forward with a project.