marvin gaye Tagged Articles at Cinematical
F. Gary Gray Helming Other Marvin Gaye Biopic
Filed under: Music & Musicals »
We've known about dueling Marvin Gaye biopics for two years now, but apparently there's a third. Variety reports of a film to be directed by F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job) and scripted by C. Gaby Mitchell (Blood Diamond) simply titled Marvin. It's possible, though, that this is the same film previously reported as D. Stevens' Marvin: The Life Story of Marvin Gaye, which was being written by Greg Guss and Robert Scharrer. The IMDb certainly thinks so.Regardless of Gray's film's origins, his project still has a competitor in Sexual Healing, which will star Law & Order's Jesse L. Martin as Gaye and will co-star and be produced by James Gandolfini. There will be a difference between the two, at least. Sexual Healing only has access to Gaye's post-Motown music, so it will be focused on the singer's later years. Marvin, on the other hand, has finally secured the rights to Gaye's entire music catalog and will cover the man's life from beginning to end, when he was shot by his father in 1984.
Another Darwin Biopic Set for 2009
Hollywood loves dueling biopics -- Columbus, Capote, Amy Fisher; if there's more than one source to mine from, there's more than one movie to be made. The latest figure to get head-to-head films is Charles Darwin. Though I haven't heard anything more on Chase Palmer's take, titled Evolution's Captain, since I wrote about it last November, it is supposed to be released some time in 2009. If that remains true, it will have some company, because Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas is also planning to deliver a Darwin film the same year (the bicentennial of the naturalist's birth).
Thomas' version will be based on "Annie's Box" (aka "Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution"), a bio written by Darwin's descendant Randal Keynes. While Palmer's film should deal more with Darwin's scientific explorations, this one will be centered more on the naturalist's home life, particularly with the death of his daughter Annie, which he blamed on inbreeding (Darwin married his first cousin). The adaptation is being written by John Collee, who I had actually thought would be appropriate for Palmer's film, and will be directed by Jon Amiel. A good guess is that Keynes' son Skandar, who acts in the Narnia films, will get a part as one of Darwin's kids (he had 10).
Other dueling biopics headed your way:
Miles Davis
Marvin Gaye
Chet Baker
Napoleon
Dueling Marvin Gayes
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Music & Musicals », Deals », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
As Karina reported a few months ago, there's a Marvin Gaye biopic in the works. Unavoidably entitled Sexual Healing (What studio could pass up an excuse to use the word "sexual" in a title?), the movie stars Jesse L. Martin as Gaye, is being directed by Lauren Goodman, and is expected to focus on the singer's last years, a period that featured fun stuff like smack addiction and being shot by his dad. If that's not Oscar bait, I don't know what is.According to The Hollywood Reporter, though, Martin isn't the only Gaye in town -- a second biopic, this one called Marvin -- The Life Story of Marvin Gaye (Gee, what could that be about?), is expected to go into production later this year. Details on the project are few, but the film is being written by Robert Scharrer, is budgeted at about $60 million (an amount that dwarfs that of the independent Sexual Healing) and, under the guidance of one Roberta Flack, will incorporate two dozen Gaye songs. Though the film's director, D. Stevens, has never helmed a feature before (he's been a still photographer for lots of productions), he nevertheless seems to have a fairly high profile, and will be taking part in a panel discussion at Cannes about the future of black cinema.
So the race is on -- until Stevens' picture gets a star, though, it's disappointingly impossible to pick sides.
Marvin Gaye: The Movie
Filed under: Independent », Music & Musicals », Casting », Cinematical Indie »
They say it takes three to make a
trend, and with Jamie Foxx, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon successfully plumbing the biographies of Ray Charles,
Johnny Cash and June Carter for Oscar gold, it should surprise no one if we find ourselves innundated with music biopics
over the next couple of years. Next up: Sexual Healing, a look at the final years in the life of Marvin Gaye,
in which the troubled soul singer moved to Europe, recovered from a nasty drug addiction, and then moved back to the
US, moved in with his parents, and got back on the spike just in time to be shot to death by his father during an
argument. Gaye will be played by Law and Order regular Jesse L. Martin, who last appeared on the big screen as
an HIV-postive academic in Chris Columbus' abysmal feature version of Broadway's Rent. The film will be
directed by Lauren Goodman, whose IMDb profile is a virtual ghost
town. That said, Martin's a theater veteran with genuine musical talent; with the right script, this could very well
rock.
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