Don Cheadle Inks TV Deal With NBC; ‘Miles Davis’ The TV series Sounds Like A Great Idea!
November 6, 2009
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…
October 24, 2009
* seriously. nothing.
Hard Road For Biopics
October 24, 2009
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.
Today In Miles Davis Movie News…
July 21, 2009
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.
The Miles Davis Movie Blog Celebrates One-Year Anniversary; Actual Miles Davis Movie Nowhere To Be Found
June 18, 2009
On June 17th 2008 I wrote a quick post about the official Miles Davis website and how I thought it could be much better. The original idea for this wordpress Blog was to be like what you are seeing now over at Miles Davis Online – basically a hub for All Things Miles Davis.
But then I decided to embark on chronicling every minute detail about the Miles Davis Biopic, a project with a long and frustrating history of trying to get produced for the silver screen.
One year later I could not be happier that I took on the endeavor.
Different from say tracking the news and opinions about a film you know is in production and will eventually go through the usual casting-shooting-marketing-hype gauntlet prior to release, following the Miles Davis Movie has been more difficult because, well, there’s really not been a lot of news.
A few quotes from Cheadle here, a comment from one of the producers there, but essentially the project, as far as I know, is on a slow burn. Yep, Don Cheadle is still on board to star and direct, and a script is out there somewhere, but finding a steady stream of news to post is problematic.
So, like Miles Davis himself, we improvised. And out of that is where I have had the most fun so far.
There have been posts upon posts about what the movie poster should look like; who should be cast to play important roles; when the movie should open; what the social media strategy might be; what songs must be featured; what scenes have to be included in the movie; is it better off as an HBO miniseries; what are the expectations…
You get the picture.
In a sense we’ve explored a movie where this isn’t one – yet.
But that’s been part of the great fun. People are generally interested in this project. It’s a movie most folks believe should be made, a story that has all the makings of a phenomenal cinema experience. Does it have the broad, commercial appeal of “Dark Knight?” No, but if you like music biopics like “Ray,” “Amadeus” and “Walk the Line,” (among many other good ones) then a movie about jazz legend Miles Davis fits the bill.
The comments, opinions and thoughts about everything and anything related to the Miles Davis Biopic have been terrific to read, and I truly appreciate everyone who has chimed in over the past year.
If you follow the Blog you probably started to see more non-movie content about Miles Davis, which is why I finally launched Miles Davis Online. But even though I’m happy about the new website, I remain faithfully committed to tracking the Miles Davis Movie until the day I am seated in a movie theatre watching the damn thing on screen.
Between jumbo, Hollywood blockbusters and a poker addiction hobby taking up all of Don Cheadle’s time, I don’t know how long it’s going to take for the Miles Davis Movie to get revved up in front of cameras, but we’ll get there.
To borrow and badly manipulate one of my favorite lines of dialogue from Apocalypse Now, as delivered by Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore:
“Someday this Miles Davis movie is gonna get made …”
Thanks to everyone who has stopped by the Miles Davis Movie Blog this past year to say hello, or just share thoughts about the biopic. I am very appreciative of the support and kind words.
We covered a lot of ground in Year 1, and believe me I have plenty more to say about what the movie poster should look like! But here’s hoping in year two we get lots of good news about the Miles Davis Movie.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Jeffrey D. Hyatt
Today In Miles Davis Movie News…
June 6, 2009
The Miles Davis Movie: A Cannes Premier One Day?
May 20, 2009
Last year I wondered whether the Miles Davis Biopic will/should premier at Cannes. It’s Festival de Cannes once again, so I thought I’d revisit the topic. Actually, I’m watching this YouTube clip of the Inglorious Basterds press conference, via Hollywood-Elsewhere, and thinking how nice it would be to see Don Cheadle surrounded by the cast of the Miles Davis Biopic after a screening. Oh, the joy of it all. I can’t imagine a biopic about the jazz legend debuting in France not being a big deal, especially in France.
The official website for Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” is up and running. I mention this because here is yet another piece of the Miles Davis Biopic that remains missing.
I know, there’s not even a studio behind it, or a marketing team to deal with all the multimedia fun. But still, how about a single page with a ‘Coming Soon’ logo?
It’s when you’ve been writing about a biopic for a year and realize the project is trapped in an endless, development limbo that you start wishing for the smallest of media pleasures — like a simple web page.
Considering Don Cheadle’s role in the next 15 Marvel film projects and his ongoing poker addiction hobby, it’s easy to see the Miles Movie being stuck in neutral for the foreseeable future. I hope I’m wrong.
Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that Universal has acquired a project based on the life of Frank Sinatra from Mandalay Pictures.
Phil Alden Robinson is writing the screenplay, and Marty Scorsese will direct.
Writes Nikki Finke: “The Sinatra family gave its permission, which is not easy to get, and youngest daughter Tina Sinatra will be an executive producer along with Robinson and Garry LeMel, the former president of Warner Bros music division and himself a musician. The producers will be Peter Guber and his movie exec Cathy Schulman.”
This is great news because it looks like all the pieces are falling into place for what could potentially be a solid film about the legendary Fran Sinatra. No guarantees, just like the Miles Davis biopic. Sometimes it’s just tough to capture that kind of genius and cultural significance – in any medium.
Of course I read news like this, and I wonder what the status is for the Miles Davis movie. Don Cheadle as star still makes a ton of sense, but one has to wonder if a director like Scorsese was involved if the project would not be farther along in its development.
The Sinatra project appears to be a BIG, Hollywood movie, so with it the requisite hype, but we don’t know where the Miles Davis biopic stands; indie-flick, tier-2 Big Hollywood movie, etc…
If anything, the news of a Sinatra biopic only makes the anticipation for a film about Miles Davis that much more heightened.
Although the Miles Davis Biopic appears to be in some advanced condition of inactivity (I don’t really know, just a guess considering Don Cheadle is off wearing armor and hanging out with Iron Man), but were it to crawl out of the development hole and in front of cameras, a typical biopic is definitely something not on the menu.
I’ve covered Cheadle’s comments regarding a more inventive approach to the biopic template, and even though I’m on board for the most part, I had to pull up this item I had saved that actually supports the strategy to veer away from the same thematic pattern most bio-pics follow.
Singing the same tune: Craig Mathieson laments the fact that most music biopics are variations on the same theme.
He makes some pretty good points.
The downfall of most music biopics is that they never capture the milieu that harboured and stimulated the artist. There’s no understanding of how a ‘scene’, be it a group of bands torn between camaraderie and competition, or a venue or rehearsal space they share, can be crucial to an artist’s development. Screenplays look for decisive moments, turning points, but there’s never been a film, for example, that’s captured the utter boredom of a pre-gig soundcheck.
It’s amidst the fear and chill of an empty room, hours before a show, that insignificant moments can reveal a musician’s abiding rites and beliefs.
The Miles Davis Movie
