An unrecognizable Don Cheadle is set to star in the independent biopic of famed jazz trumpeter Miles Davis.
Cheadle will also be making his directorial debut on Miles Ahead, filming this week in Cincinnati, 10 years after first attempting to pull his passion project off the ground. But this isn’t a traditional artist biopic, instead focusing on the five-year “silent period” of Davis’ career and his troubled marriage.
“The construction of the movie is the parallel story of Miles in 1979 at the end of this quiet period he was in, the five-year stretch of time when he wasn’t playing and performing and recording, juxtaposed against the 10-year period where he was with Francis Taylor Davis, who, at the time, was the love of his life and his muse,” Cheadle told Entertainment Weekly of the span before 1969’s jazz-rock infused In A Silent Way.
The first image of a transformed, trumpet-toting Cheadle appeared on EW over the weekend with Cheadle admitting he has spent the past year learning to play the trumpet between filming his role in Averengers: Age of Ultron, where he reprises the role of Colonel James Rhodes from the Iron Man movies.
Also In for the ride are co-stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, Keith Stanfield and Emayatzy Corinealdi, however making a film isn’t a cheap process and funding has at times had to come from his own pockets, Cheadle explains.
“This is an independently produced film,” he said. “There is no studio element. We’re still in the process locking down all the financing so it was a component of funds needed to cover a gap, including my own personal money I’ve put into the movie and a consortium of others.
“It’s to cover what it takes to put together a period movie, that has to have different looks and ways you’re trying to authenticate the time period you’re dealing with. And the music rights—all of that stuff costs money.”
Check out Cheadle discussing the development of the film below.
Photo: Entertainment Weekly
This Week in Film News – Week Ending 04/11/14
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