Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis movie has been bouncing around for a long time now. The not-a-biopic biopic just couldn’t land on its feet. However, Kill the Trumpet Player is finally moving forward as BiFrost pictures picks it up. The film will star Cheadle as Davis, Ewan McGregor as a Rolling Stone reporter and Zoe Saldana as someone attractive. Cheadle will also be making his directorial debut with the film.
The movie isn’t exactly a biopic as we know it. Instead it’s focusing on a few dangerous days in the life of Davis as he bursts out of his silent period and conspires with a Rolling Stone writer to steal back his music. Judging from what Cheadle has said about the movie before we’re guessing they’re going for more of a felling than a factual representation. Considering that’s what jazz is all about it sounds like a perfect fit.
DON CHEADLE IS MILES DAVIS IN
BIFROST PICTURES’ ‘KILL THE TRUMPET PLAYER’Cheadle to Make Feature Directorial Debut; Ewan McGregor and Zoe Saldana also Star
Los Angeles, CA (November 13, 2013)— Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, and Zoe Saldana will star in BiFrost Pictures’ KILL THE TRUMPET PLAYER, it was announced today. KILL THE TRUMPET PLAYER tells the story of a few dangerous days in the life of Miles Davis, the virtuoso, 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 will play Davis and will make his feature directorial debut from a script co-written with Steven Baigelman.
BiFrost principal Daniel Wagner is financing and will produce the project along with Robert Ogden Barnum, Cheadle and Lenore Zerman for their Crescendo Productions banner, Darryl Porter, and Vince Wilburn Jr. Executive producers are Pamela Hirsch, Cheryl Davis, Erin Davis, Cassian Elwes and Baigelman. Herbie Hancock, a legend in his own right and close collaborator of Davis, will participate in the project as well. The project was packaged by UTA which arranged the financing and is representing U.S. rights. Leading international films sales company IM Global is handling international distribution and will be introducing the title at the upcoming American Film Market.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.”
Cheadle is best known for roles in CRASH, Steven Soderbergh’s OCEAN’S TWELVE and OCEAN’S THIRTEEN, as well as for his Academy Award-nominated performance as Best Actor in 2004’s HOTEL RWANDA. He has most recently been seen as Colonel James Rhodes in IRON MAN 3 and as Marty Kaan in the Showtime series “House of Lies,” for which he won a Golden Globe in 2013. Cheadle is represented by UTA.
McGregor is best known for his roles in THE IMPOSSIBLE, GHOST WRITER, BEGINNERS, MOULIN ROUGE, TRAINSPOTTING and the STAR WARS franchise. McGregor was nominated for a Golden Globe last year for his work on the feature SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN. He will next be seen in the crime drama SON OF A GUN and he is currently shooting MORTDECAI opposite Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow. McGregor is represented by UTA, Sloane Offer and United Agents in the UK.
BiFrost Pictures’ current slate of projects include Paul Bettany’s directorial debut SHELTER, with Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Mackie; THE GIRL WHO CONNED THE IVY LEAGUE, to be directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and starring Amanda Seyfried; and the recently completed THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT, directed by David Burris and starring Minka Kelly, Haley Joel Osment, and Noah Wyle and based on the award-winning novel by Ron Rash.
