Cheadle As Miles Davis

It’s ironic that hot on the heels of the announcement that John C. Reilly is spoofing Hollywood’s recent proclivity for Oscar-whoring musician biopics, we get word of yet another one. Musician biopic that is.

This one is about the great Miles Davis, and TMZ reports that Don Cheadle will play him. Apparently it’s Cheadle that’s pushing the project forward. He’s hired Nixon and Ali screenwriters Chris Wilkinson and Steve Rivele to produce it and come up with a script.

Davis’ life has all the bullet points that have made those other recent musician biopics work. He was troubled and misunderstood. He had problems with drugs, having become addicted to heroin early in his career. He was a pain in the ass with the press and confrontational with his audience. Oh, and he was a certified musical genius.

Is Miles Davis worth making a movie about? Almost certainly. Should it be made right now? Absolutely not. We’ve seen too many of these recently, and though I’m sure Davis is a fascinating figure, you can only see the same movie so many times so close together. The whole musician biopic thing needs to be given a few years to cool off, unless someone can find a way to put a new spin on it. Another angry drug-addict isn’t it.