FILE – In a Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013 file photo, Don Cheadle arrives at the VIP Pre-Fight Party for the One: Mayweather vs. Canelo Fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Don Cheadle will play Miles Davis in a biopic the actor has long planned on the innovative jazz pioneer. BiFrost Pictures told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 that it will finance and produce “Kill the Trumpet Player,” with Cheadle also making his directorial debut. Production is finally set to begin in June.(Photo by Eric Jamison/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Don Cheadle will play Miles Davis in a biopic the actor has long planned on the innovative jazz pioneer.
BiFrost Pictures told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it will finance and produce “Kill the Trumpet Player,” with Cheadle also making his directorial debut. Cheadle has been trying to make the film for years. Production is finally set to begin in June.
The production company said the movie will focus on when Davis temporarily retired from making music and then re-emerged in 1979. The script is written by Cheadle and Steven Baigelman.
Ewan McGregor will co-star as a Rolling Stone reporter, and Zoe Saldana will play Frances Davis, the trumpet player’s former wife. Davis collaborator Herbie Hancock will be involved in the production.
Davis died in 1991 at age 65.
