Don Cheadle / Miles Davis pic

First pic of Don Cheadle as Miles Davis, via Aintitcool

Don Cheadle is set to star and direct a film about legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, scored by Robert Glasper. Cheadle talked to Downbeat Mag recently about the film, starting shooting in July.

"The actor, 50, has admired Davis’ music since he first heard his parents’ LPs of Porgy And Bess and Kind Of Blue at the age of 11. But he hadn’t seriously entertained the notion of portraying the “Prince of Darkness” until something odd happened at the 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. While accepting a posthumous honor for Davis, the trumpeter’s nephew, drummer Vince Wilburn Jr., surprised everyone—including Cheadle—by announcing that the family would produce a feature film about the late jazz icon and that Cheadle would be their leading man.

Once a promising high school sax player who had been offered a jazz studies scholarship, Cheadle is learning to play trumpet for the role. He has hired Robert Glasper to score the music, with Herbie Hancock—who won an Oscar for his 1986 score for the film ’Round Midnight—helping to supervise the soundtrack.

On his fundraising site, Cheadle says the story focuses on a few days in 1979 when Davis confronted “his relationship with his muse, his voice, his fears and challenges to come out of his silent period and return to the music.” Actors Ewan McGregor (Big Fish) and Michael Stuhlbarg (Boardwalk Empire) have been signed to play key roles as a music journalist and a record company executive."

Cheadle is running an Indieagogo campaign to assist with funding the film, see below

#MILESAHEAD NOW ON INDIEGOGO from Miles Movie on Vimeo.

Rolling Stone: Don Cheadle on 5 Miles Davis albums