In Director X’s reworking of Gordon Park’s iconic 1972 film, Rick Ross’s lavish 12-bedroom home takes central stage and is set in Atlanta.Outside of Rick Ross’s Atlanta, Georgia home.Photo by Quantrell D. Colbert.

Gordon Parks’s iconic 1972 film Super Fly, which tells the story of a cocaine dealer in Harlem, New York, has been remade in Atlanta. Director X, who has helmed Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta,” chose this spot for this year’s Superfly. In 1971, Harlem was the epicentre of Black culture. “It was actually what Atlanta is now,” he adds in the trailer. “As far as style, influence, and culture go, Atlanta’s got the juice right now,” agrees actor Big Boi.

To make sure the production design fit the setting, Director X and his team decided to establish the Snow Patrol—the competitors of cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest—in Rick Ross’s enormous 12-bedroom house on 235 acres in Fayetteville, Georgia. Villa Vittoriosa, popularly referred to as “Victory,” was once Evander Holyfield’s estate, and Ross has owned it since 2014. Ross purchased the Georgian-styled foreclosed mansion for $5.8 million. In addition to 109 rooms and a 135-seat theatre, there’s a 350,000-gallon pool and a bowling alley.

during Superfly’s 2018 filming.

 The home was converted into a movie set by Superflys production designer Graham “Grace” Walker. “He really was that.” It was very, if you can call it that, rapperesque, with gold records and huge photos of Rick Ross everywhere. And by pieces, I mean hundreds and hundreds—of trinkets. The dining room table was set up elegantly, complete with fine china and utensils. The item was really expensive. “You would swear that the moment you walk in the front door, you had just walked onto the Scarface set,” he continues. A ghastly staircase drops on both sides. You couldn’t help but wonder, “Oh my God, where are we now?” when you saw the immaculate marble.”

An intimate peek at the home of Rick RossDespite this, Superfly was not supposed to look like Ross, according to Director X. Walker and his set decorator, Kristen Donaldson, were then compelled to redecorate the house—and on a very short notice. Our three days were divided into three activities: moving in, shooting, and departing. “That could be a record,” Walker says. A room that was painted white as an artistic choice that referenced the Snow Patrol and their drug-fueled antics is one example of this.Walker describes the task as “huge.” The strange thing was that once we finished filming and had reinstalled everything exactly as it had been, Rick Ross allegedly remarked, “I want the name of the girl who decorated this house for Superfly.” Please, let her be my decorator!