“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re working on the script right now,” former Academy Award nominated actor Don Cheadle told Parade magazine recently of the long-overdue Miles Davis biopic, which he was previously reported to star in. Cheadle’s update that the project is gaining momentum is newsworthy enough, but, as a YRB interview (via the Playlist) with Erin Davis and Vince Wilburn, Jr., Davis’ son and nephew respectively, proves, the details are truly where it’s at:
“Herbie Hancock’s going to score it and Don Cheadle’s directing and starring,” said Wilburn, adding later: “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.”
Taking on a biopic about one of the most famous and complicated jazz musicians of all time is a daunting task to say the least (even a documentary about the man would be harder than making a Dylan film, I say), but it sounds as though Cheadle, Davis, Wilburn, and company are being aptly patient with the precarious project. Not to mention I can’t imagine a better living jazz legend than Herbie Hancock—someone who has played with Davis himself among countless others—to score the movie.
Either way, we’re looking forward to this one a lot more than a certain other (miscast?) biopic.