The formula for Best Actor success at the Oscars is a fairly simple. 1) Pick a dead singer, any dead singer. 2) Do an impression of him in a film. 3) Get ready for the trophy haul.
This formula worked for Jamie Foxx – who did a nifty impression of Ray Charles, and it looks like it might work for Joaquin Phoenix – who is doing a semi-nifty impression of Johnny Cash in Walk The Line. To complete the trilogy, Jesse L Martin from Rent is preparing to do an impression of Marvin Gaye in a forthcoming biopic of the singer’s final years. Jesse had better clear some space on his mantelpiece…
Eventually, every dead singer will have an Oscar-winning biopic made
about them. Now that Ray Charles and Johnny Cash are out of the way –
and pulling in all kinds of critical acclaim, box office riches and
renewed interest in their back-catalogues – it’s time for film studios
to greenlight all manner of films about dead singers. And first – or
rather, third – out of the blocks is Sexual Healing, a film about the
final years of Marvin Gaye (CDs).
Marvin Gaye seems to be the perfect subject for a movie biopic. A
man with the voice of an angel, his life slid into a mess of drug
addiction and depression before he moved to Europe, cleaned himself up,
recorded the Midnight Love album – featuring Sexual Healing – to all
kinds of plaudits, moved back in with his parents in America before
getting shot dead by his priest Dad during an argument. Now that’s a
story. According to ABC News:
"Sexual Healing," an independently financed drama starring
"Law & Order" cop Jesse L. Martin as the late Motown icon, will
shoot in Hungary and Germany. Lauren Goodman will direct from
her own script.
Goodman seems to delighted to be directing Sexual Healing. He says:
"More than just being the voice of a generation, Marvin
Gaye proved to be its very heartbeat. As a
filmmaker, I was drawn to tell the story of a human being who
was never fully realised, one with faults and foibles and an
uncommon grace expressed every time he picked up the
microphone."
Read more:
‘Law & Order’ star tunes in to Marvin Gaye movie – ABC
[story by Stuart Heritage]
elaine meltz says
Well, it’s about time. Marvin Gaye moved a whole generation thru loves up’s and downs,, not to mention a drug culture. I am very excited about this movie to come. I hope you are able to capture Marvins heart emotion felt in his songs. That emotion was charged with passion as well as pain of love. Looking forward to this one!
Jesse Martin is a good physical pick and I know he can sing from Rent, can he elude sexuality and pain all in one……..we shall see
Pamela Richardson says
THANK YOU! I have been waiting for this one! I feel it is long over do. I just wish that you could cover his entire life so that we could see how he got to his times of troubles. But being such a lover of the man. I CAN’T WAIT! I’ll take what i can get!
FHL says
What a blessing to have this movie made about this
tormented, but exextraordinary artist and human being.
I have read, purchased every autobiographical movie
on this man and the more I know and listen to his music,
the better it gets. He so deserves this kind of recognition
and sure the adulation makes his deepest dreams come true.