Don Cheadle Set To Direct, Star In Miles Davis Film ‘Kill the Trumpet Player’

One of the most legendary musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis has yet to be given the proper biopic treatment – but don’t let Don Cheadle hear you calling Kill the Trumpet Player a biopic. The massively influential jazz man and main proponent of the cool jazz movement – the reaction to the unfriendly, uptempo bebop trend, if my American Pop professor is to be believed – will be portrayed by Cheadle in the film, who could most recently seen as Colonel James Rhodes in Iron Man 3.

Bifrost Pictures’ Kill the Trumpet Player will also mark Cheadle’s first time directing a feature film, which he co-wrote with Steven Baigelman. He’ll be joined by Ewan McGregor as a Rolling Stone journalist and Zoe Saldana as Davis’ ex-wife Frances.

The Hollywood Reporter has reported a large amount of additional information, including a quote from Cheadle describing the film:

“Let’s kill that term, OK? I hope with this film we can kill the biopic. This film won’t try to give a broad overview of Davis’ life and give short shrift to this man’s story,” he said at the time. “For us as creative people, the time of his life that was most interesting was the five years when he wasn’t playing, when he was silent. What was going on in his mind? And how did he come out of it and return to music?”

As deduced by The Guardian, this likely means the film will focus on a period of time between 1975 and 1981, Davis’ “silent years” when he shunned the public and fell back into drug abuse. The Guardian also reports that there is another, more traditional Davis film in the works, this one from Notorious director George Tillman Jr.

Tyler Hanan
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