Status: Development Status Unknown as of July 1, 2014 Release Date: TBA Genre: Drama/Biography Rating:Unknown Studio: Landscape Entertainment Director: TBA Cast: Terrence Howard, Topher Grace Story: A dedicated young lawyer becomes the only white member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and fights side by side with Thurgood Marshall in the courts to destroy segregation. The landmark 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education helped to end segregation in schools.
Details: Based on the Jack Greenberg’s “Crusaders in the Courts.” (Source: Movie Insider.com).
Release Date: (2015) Genre: Drama/Biography Rating: R Running Time: 100 mins. Studio: Bifrost Pictures, Crescendo Productions, Naked City Films Director: Don Cheadle Cast: Don Cheadle (Miles Davis), Ewan McGregor (Dave Brill), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Frances Taylor), Keith Stanfield (Junior), Michael Stuhlbarg (Harper), Lakeith Lee Stanfield.
Story: A remarkable portrait of Davis, refracted through his crazy days in the late-70s. Holed up in his Manhattan apartment, wracked with pain from a variety of ailments and fiending for the next check from his record company, dodging sycophants and industry executives, he is haunted by memories of old glories and humiliations and of his years with his great love Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Source: Blackfilm.
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Update: On 7/26/15 The L. A. Times reported that Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis tale Miles Ahead will make its world premiere at The 53rd New York Film Festival’s closing night on Oct. 11. Cheadle directed the film, his first such effort, and also co-wrote the script and stars as its lead character.
The film does not yet have U.S. distribution, a break from recent tradition in which NYFF world premieres are studio award hopefuls for the current season. In fact, the film was partly financed by an IndieGogo campaign. In making his case for contributions, Cheadle explained his motivations and approach.
“I’ve taken my marching orders from Miles’ mandates (“Play what’s not there.” “Fear no mistakes. There are none.”) and focused in on a very specific point in his life to explore his relationship with his muse, his voice, his fears and challenges to come out of his silent period and return to the music. “
Emayatzy Corinealdi stars as longtime love interest Frances Taylor and Ewan McGregor as a man who finagled his way into Davis’ apartment. Source: L.A. Times.
Update 7/20/14: In an Entertainment Weekly 7/7/14 exclusive of the actor in character, Cheadle gave fans a first look at his interpretation of the icon during the period leading up to his 1969 jazz-rock fusion recording In a Silent Way.
From June 3, 2014 to July 10, 2014 Cheadle’s Indiegogo campaign surpassed it’s goal of $325,000, raising $343,496. Photo Source: Entertainment Weekly; Source(s): Entertainment Weekly, Indiegogo.com.
Update 7/6/14: Don Cheadle has initiated an Indiegogo campaign to raise $325,000 towards the overall budget of $10 million for his long in development Miles Davis project titled Miles Ahead. As of July 6th, the campaign, which started June 3rd and will close July 10th, has raised $214,661 which will contribute to principal photography when the film goes into production later this summer. On Indiegogo’s official site, Cheadle states:
“Music has always been one of my passions. Since 6th grade, when I started listening to my parents’ Miles Davis records, his artistry has been an inspiration to me; he was someone who only ever followed a path as a runway to create a new one.
Surprisingly, Miles’ life, his passion, his creativity, his fire have never been brought to life in a film and the fact that his family has chosen me to do this now is an honor. I want to tell a story that Miles himself would have wanted to see, something hip, cool, alive and AHEAD. I’ve taken my marching orders from Miles’ mandates (“Play what’s not there.” “Fear no mistakes. There are none.”) and focused in on a very specific point in his life to explore his relationship with his muse, his voice, his fears and challenges to come out of his silent period and return to the music. I’m hopefully making a movie that tells a story many people can relate to, jazz fan or not.
MILES AHEAD is not just about the music. It’s about what we all face at one time or another in our lives; questions about who we really are, what we have to say and how will we say it. How will we ultimately be defined and who gets to say so?”
Cheadle will direct and is producing the film through his Crescendo Productions banner, along with Bifrost’s Daniel Wagner, and Robert Ogden Barnum. Also producing are Darryl Porter and Vince Wilburn on behalf of the Davis estate, Lenore Zerman and Pam Hirsch. It was previously reported that Zoe Saldana was to play the musician’s ex-wife, Frances Taylor, but due to a scheduling conflict she has since been replaced by Emayatzy Corinealdi. (Sources: Indiegogo, Shadow and Act, Cincinnati.com; Photo Source: Indiegogo.com).
Status: Development Status Unknown as of April 24, 2017 Release Date: TBA Genre: Drama/Biography Rating: Not Available Studio: Four Stars International/Equinox Films Director: Vondie Curtis-Hall Cast: David Harewood (Paul Robeson), Louis Gossett, Jr. (W.E.B. Dubois), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Eslanda Goode Robeson).
Details:Variety reports that Vondie Curtis-Hall will direct the upcoming Paul Robeson biopic with shooting set for early 2014.
“Robeson” has been in development since early 2013 with South African director Darrell Roodt attached to helm and David Harewood on board to play the lead. Roodt is no longer attached and producers have opted to read other actors for the role.
Robeson, born in 1898, was a singer, actor and orator from the 1920s through the 1950s best known for his acting in “Othello” and his singing of “Ol’ Man River.” Robeson’s political activism brought him to the attention of Senator Joseph McCarthy, leading to the revocation of his passport for eight years despite his contributions as an entertainer to the Allied forces during WWII. (Source: Variety).
Status: Development Status Unknown as of June 14, 2013 Release Date: TBA Genre: Drama/Biography Rating: Not Available Studio: Arclight Films Director: Julien Temple Cast: Jesse L. Martin (Marvin Gaye), Brendan Gleeson (Freddy Cousaert), S. Epatha Merkerson (Alberta Gay), Clarke Peters (Harvey Fuqua), Dwight Henry (Marvin Gaye, Sr.)
Story: The movie chronicles late Motown legend Marvin Gaye’s self-imposed exile in Europe after years of battling drugs, domestic issues and label headaches. There, he was rescued by a promoter who helped Gaye record his biggest-selling album, “Midnight Love,” which yielded the monster comeback hit, “Sexual Healing.” Gaye’s life was cut short the day before his 45th birthday in 1984, when his father killed him.
Details: The pic will center on the final years of Gaye’s life in London from 1981, when he was suffering from an addiction to alcohol and an allergy to the taxman, and how he was rescued by music promoter Freddy Cousaert and spirited away to his flat in Ostend, Belgium, to recover.
Various producers have spent years trying to make a movie about Gaye. Originally, the project was intended to cover a larger portion of his life but was refocused on his final years because of rights issues with his Motown-produced records.
As reported by Rolling Stone Magazine in March 2013, Lenny Kravitz dropped out of the long-anticipated biopic to be replaced by Law & Order alumnus Jesse L. Martin. Deadline Hollywood reports. Martin, was actually attached to star in a previous version of the film which was being produced by James Gandolfini back in 2008. No word was given for why Kravitz bowed out, though news that the rocker would be portraying Gaye reportedly led to objections from the singer’s son, Marvin Gaye III, who threatened legal action if Kravitz did not drop out. (Source(s): Black Actors; Movie Insider; Photo Credit: ThisisRnB.com).
Release Date: 8/14/15 Genre: Drama/Biography Rating: Not Available Studio(s): Circle of Confusion, Cube Vision, Universal Pictures. Director: F. Gary Gray Cast: Corey Hawkins (Dr. Dre), Jason Mitchell (Eazy-E), O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (Ice Cube), Keith Stanfield (Snoop Dogg), Alexandra Shipp (Kim), Aldis Hodge (MC Ren), R. Marcos Taylor (Suge Knight).
Synopsis: In the mid-1980s, the streets of Compton, California, were some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation. Following the meteoric rise and fall of N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton tells the astonishing story of how these youngsters revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the hood and ignited a cultural war.
Starring O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell as Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, Straight Outta Compton is directed by F. Gary Gray (Friday, Set It Off, The Italian Job). The drama is produced by original N.W.A. members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, who are joined by fellow producers Matt Alvarez and Tomica Woods-Wright. Will Packer serves as executive producer of the film alongside Gray. Photo Source: Official Facebook page. Source(s): Official Facebook page, Movie Insider.
Status: Development Unknown (Script as of 1/17/17) Release Date: TBA Genre: Drama/Biography Rating: Not Available Studio:Specialty Films Director: Not Available Cast: David Oyelowo, Danny Strong
Details:Deadline reports that David Oyelowo is ready to play iconic boxer Sugar Ray Robinson in a biopic based on the Wil Haygood biography Sweet Thunder: The Life And Times Of Sugar Ray Robinson. Moneyball producer Rachael Horovitz and Game Change scribe Danny Strong will produce, and Oyelowo will be executive producer.
According to Black Actors, the film will focus on Robinson’s early career and possibly the organized crime circles that controlled the boxing industry in the 1940s and 1950s. (Source(s): Deadline; Black Actors).
Black Cinema Connection 