BREAKING: Universal Pictures has found its James Brown. They’ve set Chadwick Boseman, who just played iconic Brooklyn Dodgers second baseman Jackie Robinson in 42. The Help‘s Tate Taylor is directing the film. Imagine Entertainment‘s Brian Grazer is producing the film with another musical icon, Mick Jagger. The film will be a co-production between Jagged Films, based on a screenplay by Jez
Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth. Grazer and Jagger will produce along with Jagged’s Victoria Pearman and Imagine’s Erica Huggins. Universal signed on recently. The story charts a young boy’s rise from extreme poverty and violence to become The Godfather Of Soul, one of the most influential black artists in history whose career spanned six decades. Grazer started the project at a time when the singer himself was an active part in its development, before he died in late 2006.
Chadwick Boseman is going to become the go to guy when it comes to playing iconic black guys.
Interesting . . . in a good way. I think Boseman can play Brown really well. Wonder if he can sing? Doesn’t matter, really, all James Brown did was scream anyway. It was all in the show for him but that man was some entertainer. This is great news.
If you think all James Brown did was scream, skip on over to YouTube and give a listen to “If I Ruled the World”, one of the live versions.
Yes, and then listen to “Please, Please, Please”, “Try Me”, “Bewildered”, “Prisoner of Love”, etc.
People who claim that James Brown couldn’t sing/”just screamed” need to know better.
Great choice! I saw Chadwick in an indie called “The Kill Hole” and you couldn’t take your eyes off the screen when he was on.
i don’t know how different spike’s rewrite is, but the butterworths original draft of this (unfortunately titled “superbad”) was fantastic. good writers and good guys, those two.
Fortunate enough to work with him on 42. He’ll kill it.
I never worked with him. But I did see 42. AND I agree with you. Hope YOU get more work too…
Excellent!
And, Tate Taylor should do another wonderful job directing.
Fantastic news. Loved him in 42, and I saw The Kill Hole, which he was great in too despite the movie being awful. Only a matter of time before he fires his horrible agent Michael Greene.
F this noise. James Brown couldn’t play James Brown in a biopic. As much as I love the man, Lawrence Fishburn couldn’t do Ike Turner. How is this man supposed to do JB?
It’s Laurence FishburnE… and if you don’t think he killed as Ike Turner, which he was Oscar-nominated for, you need to watch more movies…
Guess Eddie Murphy is deemed to old?
Go, Victoria! – “I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.”
Forget a bio pic. Take a combination of character traits culled from the likes of Sam Cooke, James Brown and Otis Redding, stir in some gospel guilt for selling your soul to the devil, and create a mythological magic soul man. It would take place on one night. This magic soul man is recording what will become a monumentaly great lost track. All around him is swirling the drama of his manager, his girl and his drug dealer. We flash back to his days in the church, singing in the gospel choir. Because maybe he has sold his soul to the devil, and we the audience thank god for it. Of course our magic soul man dies that night. It’s like soul noir.
am i the only one who finds this casting unfortunate – regardless of his potential talent, he just played another famous biographical figure in a small time span
Agreed – what an uninspired casting choice
Agreed… I am a fan and also an alumnus of Howard University as is Chadwick.. Couldn’t be more happy for success but this feels like a producer thought he played one famous black guy so he can play another famous black guy…. just saying
Sounds like a snooze-fest. Would have been nice if they got someone with charisma…to play someone with charisma
Hopefully it will be better than the last biopic Imagine produced.
I was pulling for Wayne Brady for resemblance, singing, and performance skills.
Also, Tate Taylor’s directorial biography is too short to entrust with the Godfather of Soul’s biopic. Taylor Hackford, he is not. He’s also somewhat block-headed on issues significant to African Americans which The Help revealed.