Don Cheadle Makes Miles Davis Film a Reality

At long last there is going to be a Hollywood film about Miles Davis. Actor Don Cheadle has signed on to star as Davis, and he'll also make his directorial debut with the partially crowd-funded film, Miles Ahead. The film focuses on the 5-year period in which Davis was producing no music (1976 to 1981), commonly referred to as his "silent period." Last week I spoke with the Miles Davis family and learned a bit more about the project. 

Erin Davis (son) and Vince Wilburn Jr. (nephew) have been attempting to get this film made for over seven years. According to Vince, "there was a movie in the works a few years back with Wesley Snipes portraying Miles...that just fell through." Soon after, Vince and Erin sat down, regrouped and asked the question: who should play Miles? "We started and ended with Don," said Erin, "He was the one person on the list."  In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Erin and Vince accepted the award, and took the opportunity to publicly announce that they were going make a movie about Miles Davis, and they wanted Don Cheadle as the film's star. Cheadle caught wind of this and immediately wanted to not only star in the film, but to help develop the script, direct and produce it as well. 

Miles Ahead is currently in it's third week of filming, thanks to support from BiFrost Pictures and the $354,000 generated using the crowd funding website, Indiegogo. Although the crowd sourced funds will be used, they are not the main source of the film's funding. Cheadle launched the Indiegogo campaign as part of a larger marketing strategy to create more of a buzz around the film. Apparently, this funding model is becoming more and more common in indie films. Co-host of WNYC's podcast Movie Date Kristen Meinzer says, "Indiegogo is just one of many crowdfunding options for people. Each of these services [crowdfunding sites: Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc.] allow filmmakers to rally the support of friends and strangers. Very few indie filmmakers rely 100% on crowdfunding..most will have bigger investors, grants and underwriters. I think that most film funding experts would argue that having a mix of funding sources is the way to go." 

Marketing campaign or not, everyone involved with the making of Miles Ahead has been thrilled by the show of support. When referring to the Indiegogo campaign Erin Davis admitted, "I think it was a great way to include fans and old friends...It was a definite success." 

And the film may very well be a success, it seems to have all the makings of one. The cast is an impressive all-star list: Ewan McGregor, Zoe Saldana (who was recently cast as Nina Simone in the bio pic, Nina) and of course, Don Cheadle as Miles Davis. The soundtrack has been put in the hands of some of the best in the business. Herbie Hancock has been brought on as music consultant and Robert Glasper will be scoring music for the film. Not to mention, the original Miles Davis recordings to be hand picked by Erin Davis and Vince Wilburn Jr.

So, when can we see this movie? The film is still in the early stages, Vince says, "that it's gonna' be a minute, but we are shooting for the Fall of 2015."