The long-gestating James Brown biopic over at Universal is coming together rather quickly now as Tate Tayler (The Help) has cast 42 star Chadwick Boseman to play Brown in Get On Up, and is eying his Help stars, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Nelsan Ellis for supporting roles while Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Little Richard who will appear as themselves.
Taylor will direct from a screenplay by Fair Game scripters, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth who rewrote Steven Baigelman‘s original draft with much of the film to be shot in Mississippi.
Boseman will play Brown as the film charts his rise from extreme poverty and violence to become “The Godfather of Soul,” one of the most influential black artists in history whose career spanned six decades. Producer Brian Grazer started the project at a time when the singer himself was an active part in its development, before he died in late 2006. [The Wrap]
