Critically acclaimed actor, Don Cheadle has allured millions of hearts word wide with his outstanding performances as the real-life humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina in 2004’s Hotel Rwanda and the entrenched asshole extraordinaire Marty Kaan on Showtime series House of Lies.
Turning in consistently powerful performances, Don Cheadle has finally moved behind the camera for his new directorial debut, Miles Ahead. The drama movie is based on the turbulent life of iconic trumpeter Miles Davis.
Source: amny.com
The Devil in a Blue Dress star has focused on the musician’s rooted talent, inner demons and sense of humor in his directorial movie. This has been regarded as his passion project in which he has starred as the famed jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis.
Growing up in a family in which Davis’ music was part of the family soundtrack; Cheadle was inspired in making a film about the man behind the trumpet. The idea for the movie struck him at the Davis’ 2006 induction ceremony into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when Davis’ nephew suggested a biopic and pitched him as Davis.
This has surely been his dream project. Cheadle has been working on his project over a decade now. He wanted to make a nonlinear biopic replicating Davis “gangster” attitude through his music compositions and wild character.
In an interview with the Real Daytime, he said
“I wanted to feel like an experience of Mile Davis. I wanted it to be not instructional and more experiential and I wanted to feel like more composition like you’re walking around the piece of Miles Davis’ brain and creativity.”
He always wanted the biopic to be the kind of movie in which the legendary musician Davis might have wanted to star.
“I wanted to do something that felt to me like what Miles felt like, which was incredibly creative and different [from] anything that you’d seen before and would violate the form, which he did musically all the time,” Cheadle explained about the eccentric direction for the film.
Before he made his feature film debut with Miles Ahead, he had directed two episodes of House of Lies, the Showtime series. Actor turned director revealed that he wants to remain as a busy actor but wants to keep directing without the problems that he faced getting his first directorial story onto the big screen.
“There are a couple of prospects out there,” he said. “That’s something I will pursue, but not in this way. I don’t need to do it that way again. That was a bit much.”
The much-awaited biopic of Mile Davis stars the finest actors including Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi and Keith Stanfield. The movie has released on April 1, 2016.