ChrisWilkinson Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Don Cheadle Is Miles Davis
Filed under: Drama », Music & Musicals », Casting », Scripts »
Now this is a musical biopic I can get behind -- Miles Davis. One of the greatest jazz musicians, the man rocked the trumpet. He delighted in bebop and jazz -- cool, modal, fusion. He played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. He even opened up for bands like Grateful Dead and the Steve Miller Band. Unfortunately, there is also the classic struggle with drugs, which in his case was heroin and cocaine, but with the right man, the cinematic version will be great. That man is Don Cheadle, and I have this funny feeling he can pull this off, probably because he's all sorts of fabulous. Christopher Campbell shared rumors of this in December, and now we have official confirmation.
The film will, however, be challenging, as the actor plans to produce, make his directorial debut and star as Davis. Along with Crescendo Productions, they've secured the life and music rights, which Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson will pen into a screenplay. The pair aren't strangers to music and biopics -- they've previously written Nixon, Ali and Copying Beethoven. So far, so good! We'll have to see how it pans out once things fall into place. I'm not sure how soon it will be, since Cheadle has a whole slew of projects coming up to produce and star in. There is a political drama called Traitor, a comedy about a lawyer-turned-ref called Quest to Ref, the drama Broken Adonis that places Cheadle as an ex-con and Marching Powder the story of a drug dealer who spent years as a tour guide in a Bolivian prison.
Cheadle Confirmed for Miles Davis Bio
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Music & Musicals », Casting », Deals », Sony », Oscar Watch », Cinematical Indie »
There still seems to be no official press release regarding Don Cheadle's involvement in a Miles Davis biopic, but TMZ is reporting that not only is the actor confirmed to star as the jazz trumpet legend, but he will be directing the film, as well. Erik told us back in March about the project, but at that time it was thought that Sony Pictures would be involved and that Antoine Fuqua might be interested in directing it. Then, just a few weeks ago, Jessica mentioned that there are in fact two competing Davis pics. Apparently, the main setback in getting this project started was securing music rights. That is where Sony ended up being involved, as producer Cary Brokaw went to the studio, which released his last two pictures, as a go-between in dealing with Davis' Columbia Records catalog (Sony Pictures and Columbia Records are owned by the same conglomerate). But the film will not be produced by the studio; Brokaw will reportedly be financing it independently. I predict, however, that in the end it will be distributed by Sony Classics.
Writing the screenplay for the bio are Chris Wilkinson and Steve Rivele, the Oscar-nominated duo behind other biopics, such as Nixon, Ali, Copying Beethoven and an upcoming film about Jackie Robinson. Depending on Cheadle's talent as a director -- we will see his handiwork first with next year's Tishomingo Blues --- he could very well go on to win an Oscar (or two!) for this project. We already know that he's an amazing actor and that the Academy loves biographical roles, so this is obviously a film that should generate buzz even before the thing has its first day of shooting.
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