There have been various attempts at making a biopic of Miles Davis, but now one’s moving forward as Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, and Zoe Saldana are set to star in Kill the Trumpet Player, which is based on a few dangerous days in the life of the musician, fighter and genius, as he bursts out of his silent period and conspires with a Rolling Stone writer (McGregor) to steal back his music.
Cheadle is set to play Davis and will be pulling double-duty and he’s set to make his feature directorial debut from a script co-written with Steven Baigelman. The actor has been involved for a couple of years, but it’s only now it’s getting made. Herbie Hancock, a legend in his own right and close collaborator of Davis, will participate in the project as well.
There’s no news on who McGregor and Saldana will play.
BiFrost Picture’s Daniel Wagner commented, “Don is one of our generation’s greatest actors, and this is the role he was born to play. His take on the conventional biopic of one of music’s most celebrated icons is cinematic “jazz” and too unique to resist. It fits naturally with BiFrost’s commitment to support talent and their passion projects, so we are thrilled to work with Don on his feature directorial debut.”