Don Cheadle is attempting to finally bring life to his Miles Davis biopic, Miles Ahead, by going the indie route and crowd-sourcing the film’s funding via IndieGoGo and as of right now the project has raised $254,662 of its $325,000 goal with only three days left.
In a note on the IndieGoGo page it reads:
Music has always been one of my passions. Since 6th grade, when I started listening to my parents’ Miles Davis records, his artistry has been an inspiration to me; he was someone who only ever followed a path as a runway to create a new one.
Surprisingly, Miles’ life, his passion, his creativity, his fire have never been brought to life in a film and the fact that his family has chosen me to do this now is an honor.
I want to tell a story that Miles himself would have wanted to see, something hip, cool, alive and AHEAD.
Today Cheadle took another step toward enticing fans to help fund the project by sitting down with EW and offering the following first look at him in full costume as Davis and discussing the project, which will co-star Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg and Emayatzy Corinealdi once funded.
As for the costume seen in the picture, Cheadle says, “It’s a great shot; it’s kinda cool, huh? I attribute that to my department to more than anything I’m doing: That’s hair, makeup, wardrobe, and props. But it’s cool to be sitting on it and have it all begin. At this point, with everything that’s happening, its real and surreal and hyperreal and every version of it that I can think of.”
And when it comes to taking the funding to the people, “This is an independently produced film. There is no studio element,” Cheadle said. “We’re still in the process locking down all the financing so it was a component of funds needed to cover a gap , including my own personal money I’ve put into the movie and a consortium of others. It’s to cover what it takes to put together a period movie, that has to have different looks and ways you’re trying to authenticate the time period you’re dealing with. And the music rights–all of that stuff costs money. But it also felt like a good way to open him up back to the public and try to raise that awareness and use the social mediums to make this a social event. To make it social, like the music Miles talked about. It just made sense on multiple levels to do it this way.”
You can read the full interview here and check out the photo directly below.
