I read an article in Variety about the difficult marketplace for music documentaries. We’ve definitely come a long way from the Oscar-winning “Woodstock” and other classic, music docs like (the awesome) “The Last Waltz” and (equally great) “Stop Making Sense” — there have been plenty of good music films over the years, but the market … Continue reading »
Category Archives: business
babble / biopic / business / don cheadle
The Miles Davis Movie: What A Long, Strange Trip It Still Is
When all is said and done there’s going to quite a story to write about the saga of bringing the life of Miles Davis to the big screen. There’s been one project or another circling the development track for years; one example from way back in 1993 had reports of Wesley Snipes preparing to star … Continue reading »
Miles Davis wins the Grammy! “Kind Of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition” wins the Grammy for Best Album Notes
Congratulations Francis Davis, who wrote the album notes, Columbia/Legacy Recordings and everyone involved with the “Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition” for winning the Grammy for Best Album Notes. Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: PG-13 or Rated R?
No biopic of Miles Davis, be it traditional narrative or off the wall bizarre, is going to be genuine without a great deal of bad language. The man could turn a phrase, as it were. Flip through a few pages of his entertaining autobiography (here’s page 65!) and it’s clear Miles Davis had a talent … Continue reading »
Miles Davis and the road to success
Great post over at Prevential, Derek Halpern’s online resource for success driven individuals, by Matt Rodela called A Lesson in Cool: What Miles Davis Taught Us About Success. A jazz fan with a penchant for entrepreneurship, Rodela illustrates how music and business are connected. It’s an interesting breakdown of how many of the techniques Miles … Continue reading »
Miles Davis & Movie Marketing
One day someone is going to have to develop a marketing campaign for the Miles Davis biopic; this issue interests me a great deal because the advertising/marketing component of a film, big or small, can be the difference between success and failure – regardless if the movie is any good or not. So I wanted … Continue reading »
babble / biopic / business / don cheadle
Don Cheadle inks TV production deal; ‘Miles Davis’ the TV series sounds like a great idea!
Don Cheadle is looking to broaden his creative endeavors by dipping a toe into the TV ‘biz. The talented actor and star of the one-day-it-will-be-here biopic of Miles Davis signed a two-year deal at Universal Media Studios. Under the pact, announced Thursday during NBC’s portion of the winter Television Critics Assn. press tour, Cheadle’s Crescendo … Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: Next year (or the next) at Sundance?
The bacchanal of independent cinema, Hollywood business and celebrity worship known as the Sundance Film Festival kicks off today in idyllic Park City (at least when the town isn’t overrun by the festival). It’s another year loaded with buzz-worthy indie flicks and sleeper titles all vying for that lucrative distribution deal. So as the curtain … Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: When is the best time to release the film? (updated)
All the talk lately about the (surprising) release date for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds has me revisiting a post I wrote last summer about the best time of year to release a Miles Davis biopic. Needless to say the announcement from The Weinstein Company of an August 21, 2009 nationwide release for “Inglorious Basterds” was … Continue reading »
miles davis. 1971. paris
* Will/Should ‘Miles Davis’ premier at Cannes? Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: HBO and Miles Davis and a 10-hour movie (oh my!)
The Playlist posted some news and opinion this week about Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” film, Part One: “The Argentine” and Part Two: “Guerilla.” They pulled a quote from a good Salon.com interview w/ Soderbergh about dividing the film into two parts and what he’d do differently in retrospect. “Now I look at it and wish we’d … Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: More box office success in the U.S. or abroad?
While I do think the domestic release of the Miles Davis biopic will bring with it a hefty share of media coverage/hype, critical debate, awards discussion and positive ticket sales (I can only assume), I can foresee the film doing big business abroad — perhaps even better abroad versus in the U.S. There’s the whole … Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: Can Obama presidency help the success of a movie about Miles Davis?
During the just concluded presidential campaign there was a moment when we learned what kind of music the candidates preferred. It was no surprise that when Barack Obama revealed his iPod playlist there was much (fun) debate and scrutiny. Of course his music assemblage was greeted with cheers because, well, because his musical taste is … Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: Omission from ‘most anticipated poll’ further proof biopic won’t hit theatres in ’09
There was a survey from MovieTickets.com released last week (thx: DHD) conducted between August 8th and October 5th of nearly 4,000 movie fans who chimed in with their picks for the “most anticipated” films over the next 12 months. The MovieTickets.com Top-10 Most Anticipated Films 1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros) 2. … Continue reading »
The Miles Davis Movie: What are your expectations?
For me, I’ll say high, very high. Soaring. I want the Miles Davis movie to be a classic. I want the film to be a critical success as well as a box office champ. No, we’re not talking “Dark Knight” numbers, but solid box office in the U.S. and abroad. I want Don Cheadle to … Continue reading »
