Alessandro Nivola, David Oyelowo and Jon Abrahams will sail the musical waters together in the feature biopic Chess. Jerry Zaks is directing.
The story chronicles the life of Leonard Chess (Nivola), a self-made music impresario and renowned record company executive who brought blues into the public eye and jump-started the careers of some of the music industry’s biggest names, including Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry.
Oyelowo will play Waters, while Abrahams will play Phil Chess, Leonard’s younger brother who worries when Leonard becomes involved with a singer who has been signed to their label.
The script for Chess was penned by Peter Wortmann and Bob Conte and is being produced by Jonathan Mitchell, Les Alexander and Andrea Baynes through Checkmate Prods.
Shooting is set to begin April 7 in New Orleans.
