While he’s made various types of film, Julien Temple is undoubtedly best know for the movies and documentaries he’s made about music, from the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and The Fith And The Fury to Glastonbury and Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. Now he’s hoping to bring the life of Marvin Gaye to the screen, and the Evening Standard says he wants Lenny Kravitz to play him.
Kravitz’s acting career has really taken off in the last couple of years thanks to Precious and The Hunger Games (he’ll be back as Cinna in Catching Fire next year). However this would be Kravitz’s first lead role, with the film looking at the last years of Marvin Gaye’s life from 1981.
The period saw huge success for the singer, with the likes of Sexual Healing hitting the top of the charts, however in 1984 after an argument with his parents, Marvin’s father shot and killed him (with a revolver the singer had given him as a present, no less).
Gaye also had issues with alcohol and drug abuse, but it was his manager helping to get him clean (and sort out his taxes) that led to his early 80s success. However, Marvin was found to have cocaine and angel dust in his system when he died, which many have suggested is the reason why the argument got so out of control.
Apparently Janis Gaye, the singer’s second and last wife, is “very sceptical” about the project, and indeed like Janis Joplin, many have tried to make a biopic over the years but none has happened. We’ll have to wait and see whether Temple has better luck.
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