Never Say Never: Snoop Dogg ‘wants to play Miles Davis’

Snoop Dogg doesn’t know Don Cheadle has a Miles Davis Biopic in the works. I’m willing to bet A LOT of people have no idea there is a project in development between Cheadle and the Miles Davis Estate.

But you have to love the fact that Snoop Dogg revealed that he would ‘love to play Miles Davis.’

Via Digital Spy, we learn that the rap star believes Davis’ “brilliant” story should be told in a biopic. I concur.

“One day Quincy Jones said to me, ‘When you rap it sounds like Miles Davis playing his trumpet’,” Dogg explained. “I became curious and wanted to know more about him. I started to listen to his records and read about him.

“For me, Miles isn’t a hero, but a desire and a challenge. Miles didn’t care what people or critics thought about him – he just played his music and kept developing himself as a person. He just did his own thing. That’s the reason why I want to play him. His brilliant story needs to be told.”

His brilliant story needs to be told.

Let’s repeat that one more time: His brilliant story needs to be told

Snoop definitely knows what’s up. In fact, his quote pretty much sums up the reason I started the Miles Davis Movie blog and continue to discuss the project here at MDO.

Hey, if the Cheadle project falls apart let’s let Snoop have a crack at the biopic. Why not? Okay, Snoop Dogg is not the first 10 or 12 people that come to mind when thinking of actors who might portray the jazz legend, but hey… whatever works. And it’s not like he has this whole Iron Man/War Machine stuff getting in the way of production.

And there’s no law that says Snoop can’t make his own damn movie about Miles. So Snoop, if you want to put together a film about Miles Davis with you in the starring role, then we have your back.

The Miles Davis Movie: Don Cheadle In Paris

In between all the Iron Man 2 hullabaloo, it’s easy to forget Don Cheadle is the guy with the enormous responsibility to make a biopic about Miles Davis.

So when we get a glimpse of the actor strolling around the We Want Miles exhibit in Paris, it tells those of us following the long and winding road of the Miles Davis Movie that Cheadle is still thinking about it. Perhaps a research trip? Maybe he needs a shot of inspiration? Or maybe he can easily jet off to Paris, so why not hit the Cite de la Musique and see what’s up with this acclaimed exhibit?

We all know he’s plenty busy running around Hollywood as War Machine, but one day the guy is going to ‘be’ Miles Davis – and that remains a really big deal.

No doubt he enjoyed his tour of the exhibit.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Barber
via: milesdavis.com

Hey, What’s Don Cheadle Doing?*

Here’s Don Cheadle dressed up as War Machine for the upcoming “Iron Man 2.” Sigh.

How nice will it be when we get the early photos of Cheadle dressed up as Miles Davis?

* when he’s not working on the Miles Davis Biopic

The Miles Davis Movie: Herbie Hancock To Score Miles Davis Biopic

Directly below this post we noted a recent interview that Erin Davis (Miles’ son) and Vince Wilburn Jr. (Miles’ nephew) did with YRB Magazine; Wilburn Jr. noted that a new writer, Steven Baigelman, is collaborating with Don Cheadle on an updated draft of the script.

Big news for followers (me) of the Miles Davis Biopic.

But in the very same interview, Wilburn Jr. also points out that Herbie Hancock is planning to score the movie. Wow. That’s kind of big news, in my opinion.

Here’s Wilburn Jr.’s exact quote: Yeah, Herbie Hancock’s going to score it and Don Cheadle’s directing and starring.

We’ve long known about Cheadle, but Hancock definitely adds some spice to the project.

((This post also appears on Miles Davis Online)

The Miles Davis Movie: New Screenwriter Working With Don Cheadle

Although the Oscar-nominated screenwriting and producing duo Chris Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele are still listed on IMDB as part of the Untitled Miles Davis Biopic, Erin Davis (Davis’ son) and Vince Wilburn Jr. (Davis’ nephew), in a recent interview with YRB Magazine, reveals that a new writer, Steven Vegelman, is collaborating with Don Cheadle on a new draft of the script.

Said Wilburn Jr.:

We’re in the process of OK’ing the script with a new writer. Don didn’t like the other writer that was attached to the movie, so there’s a new writer named Steven Vegelman that Don’s writing with. Once is the script is OK’d by the family, then we go into production.

To say that I’m delighted to finally stumble across some ‘news’ about the project is an understatement. I still think we’re looking at 2011, but at least Cheadle and Co. are still firmly involved in pushing this cinematic endeavor forward.

(This post also appears on Miles Davis Online)

Hey, What’s Don Cheadle Doing?*

Variety: Brendan Gleeson is teaming up with Don Cheadle to star in helmer John Michael McDonagh’s “The Guard.” Pic follows an unorthodox Irish policeman who joins forces with a strait-laced FBI agent to take on an international drug smuggling gang in Ireland.

* when he’s not working on the Miles Davis Biopic

Don Cheadle Inks TV Deal With NBC; ‘Miles Davis’ The TV series Sounds Like A Great Idea!

According to Variety, Crescendo, the production company Cheadle launched with former managers Kay Liberman and Lenore Zerman, has sealed a first-look TV deal at NBC.

Seriously – a TV series based on the life and times of Miles Davis? How is that not appointment television? A mini-series might not be too terrible either.

In truth, I don’t think the deal means Cheadle is going to start acting on TV (although he was awesome in a guest spot on “ER” and has appeared on a bunch of series in the past), but at least it’s nice to know someone with his talent will be developing projects for the little screen.

Today In Miles Davis Movie News…

* seriously. nothing.

Hard Road For Biopics

While the name ‘Miles Davis’ doesn’t come up in Jay A. Fernandez’s Hollywood Reporter item about the pitfalls of trying to produce a biopic, his points are still well taken.

There are at least three dozen biopics lining the benches of major studios, though not all are actively being developed. Those swelling ranks might be a function of our 21st century addiction to celebrity, but just as few finished products will make it onto a screen as 30 or 50 years ago. Musicians remain a popular target because of the built-in ancillary boost from their soundtracks.

It’s all just too depressing.

Miles Davis Biopic Will Not Be ‘A History Lesson’ Says Don Cheadle

In an interview with Ed Potton in the Times of London, Don Cheadle not only mentions his plans to direct and star in the Miles Davis Biopic, but he also reinforces his decision to produce a film that does not follow the ‘Hollywood’ blueprint for biopics.

His pet project is a biopic of his childhood hero Miles Davis (see lists), which he plans to both direct and star in.“I didn’t want to do anything that resembled the biopics I’d seen. I want it to be relevant today, not a history lesson.”

I was unaware that Miles Davis was a childhood hero of Cheadle’s, or really just how much he cared about the jazz legend.

Asked about some of his favorite musicians, Cheadle had this to say about Davis:

I’ve loved him since fifth grade, when I started playing saxophone and my parents had his Porgy & Bess album. Very young I was just taken with the music. I was a student of it very early, and that’s just sort of never waned. A lot of people think they know a lot about Miles but they only know the name and the image, the iconography. You say: “Miles Davis” to most people and they go: “Yeah, jazz! He played sax or he played something, right?”

They don’t really know, and that’s fine. I wanted to make a movie for the people who didn’t know about Miles Davis, so they could just enjoy the movie and the music.

A movie for people who don’t know about Miles Davis. I can appreciate that. But do those people want experimental cinema, or do they want “Ray,” but instead of Ray Charles it’s the story of Miles Davis?

His comment brings up an interesting point about how best to show the life and times of Miles Davis in a feature film. To just ‘enjoy the movie and the music’ sounds to me like a recipe for traditional storytelling, yet we have heard the term deconstructed biopic associated with this project so it remains fuzzy which way Cheadle will take the narrative.

He could very well break the story into chapters, which weave in and out of Davis’ life. But without the proper context I’m not sure how someone who knows little or nothing about Davis can appreciate the scope of his life and music with this style of movie-making.

Although a script has been written – and rewritten – there isn’t any hard proof of where Cheadle is steering this project other than the comments he’s made this past year; mostly just reiterating his desire for something different than a traditional, cradle-to-grave storyline.

I’m on record as being fine either way, but I do think a traditional narrative might equal greater success with an audience not that familiar with Miles Davis. So much is still unknown about the scope of this biopic that all we really have is conjecture; whether or not the Miles Movie is a big studio deal, or an indie offering will go a long way in determining just how the story gets told.

I’m just glad he mentioned the movie. With all the Cheadle news these days centering on Iron Man 2 and his poker exploits, it’s mighty nice to see the Miles Davis Biopic get some pub. It remains a project in no hurry to get in front of cameras, but at least Cheadle is thinking about it, mulling over which way to take this very special movie project.

So even a brief goes a long way here and at Miles Davis Online. For now all we can do is speculate and continue asking the big questions – like who is going to play John Coltrane?