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 Vegelman, 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?

Don Cheadle Talks Miles Davis Movie at Comic-Con

I stumbled on this interesting interview with Don Cheadle during his press rounds at Comic-Con.

The back-and-forth questioning is brought to us via Paul Fischer and Moviehole (many thanks):

—

Question: What are you doing next? Do you want to do a smaller film next?

Cheadle: I’ve gotta get this Miles Davis project off, so that’s going to take my time.

Question: How’s that going?

Cheadle: It’s going good. We have a script that we’re working on. We’ve just gotta beat the bushes.

Question: Do you want to direct it?

Cheadle: If it doesn’t kill me, yes.

Question: What timeline of his life are you covering?

Cheadle: It’s not a cradle to grave story at all, but it touches a lot of parts of his life. It’s not a biopic.

Question: Which is your favorite of Miles’ groups?

Cheadle: I don’t have a favorite. There’s so many.

Question: What inspired your passion for his music and this project?

Cheadle: My heroin addiction. [Laughs] No. That’s probably not the best answer.

—

Wow. The acknowledgment alone is stunning. If they make the 2011 release I will be surprised. But it’s still ‘on.’ It is still… happening.

I’m surprised he doesn’t call it a ‘biopic.’ We already knew it was going to be ‘deconstructed’ and not utilize the usual Hollywood blueprint for a biopic (see: “Ray”). Sounds like he could be persuaded to give up the directors’ chair.

We have already touched on the issue of what happens if a new director were brought in to guide the project, allowing Cheadle to focus on playing Miles.

In the end it’s nice to know the biopic/not-biopic was brought up and Cheadle addressed it.

Raise your hand if you feel as it I perhaps started this Blog about two years too soon! Oh well. It’s been awesome all along, and the journey continues… Onward and upward!

No stoppin’ until this bad boy is cast, shot, cut, marketed and playing down the street at my local AMC theatres.

And then I asked a question about the Miles Davis biopic….

Deadline Hollywood Daily has a nice play-by-play of the ‘Iron Man 2′ panel at Comic-Con Saturday. The whole gang was there (Favreau, Downey Jr., Rockwell) including War Machine himself, Don Cheadle.

No, I didn’t ask Cheadle about the Miles Davis film b/c I stayed up in LA this weekend, but had I traveled down to the big event I totally would have asked him about the biopic. Would it have been out of order when he’s there to hype they already super-hyped Iron Man sequel? Perhaps. Would Iron Man fans have yelled at me for bringing up non Marvel Comics related items? Maybe.

But inquiring Miles Davis minds would like to know what’s up.

Today In Miles Davis Movie News…

Thankfully Ovation TV aired The Miles Davis Story a few times last week. It’s definitely a documentary worth seeing whether you know nothing or everything about Miles Davis. Ian Carr is great. The old footage, and focus on the early years, is really good. It’s not a perfect doc on the life of Miles Davis, but we’ll take what we can get.

I still contend that if this movie never makes it Ken Burns should do a 5-part series for PBS.

There is The Miles Davis Documentary, directed by Miles Davis biopic screenwriter Christopher Wilkinson, but we have no idea when it’s debuting and on what channel – though cable (HBO) makes the most sense.

As for poker superstar Don Cheadle, well, there are 6 projects listed as In Development via imdb – Untitled Miles Davis Biopic is one of them. It has a 2011 date with it, so perhaps all my carrying on about no news is silly …because it’s only 2009!

We shall see.