It’s official, rocker Lenny Kravitz will play Marvin Gaye in ‘Midnight Love’, an upcoming biopic directed by Julien Temple. I wasn’t really aware of it but Kravitz has a sort of supporting role career, as he had appeared in ‘Precious’, The Hunger Game’, among other things, but this time he certainly will be the center of attention.
Wasn’t Cameron Crowe attached to a project about Marvin Gaye two years ago? Terrence Howard was supposed to play the part, after Will Smith had turned down the role. Could you imagine for a second the Prince of Bel Air as the Motown legend? What could have Crowe been thinking? Then, there was another project with Jesse L. Martin and James Gandolfini directed by F. Gary Gray in the work, and none of these apparently saw the light of the day, so we have to wonder whether this new one will succeed.
According to Deadline, the project is scheduled to start filming next year and will focus on the time Gaye spent in England in the 80s, when he was trying to kick his addictions and make the album 'Midnight Love'. Despite Gaye’s widow Janis Gaye and Motown’s Berry Gordy concerns that the film will focus on the negative aspects of the musician's life, the music rights have been sorted out.
Aren’t we really tired of this biopics about drugged out musicians? Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, yes I know this new one logically will not have a happy ending, but this is always the same damn old story.
But now the question is whether Kravitz will be the right guy for the role… Marvin Gaye was a lady’s man at the time, Kravitz? Not that much anymore. Plus, I have never seen him play anything and I am not a fan of his music at all. Will he be performing Gaye’s songs? As a musician himself it would seem logical, however, I can’t find any similarities in the singing voices.