After years and years of fits and starts, it’s looking like a Marvin Gaye biopic might finally be getting off the ground. Deadline broke the news that Warner Bros. bought the rights to the script for What’s Going On, a musical about Gaye’s life from poet and playwright Marcus Gardley, which will be produced by Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine, Andrew Lazar, and filmmaker Allen Hughes (known to many as one half of directing phenoms The Hughes Brothers), who will also direct the film. The film is budgeted at a hefty $80 million, no small part of which will go to Motown and Gaye’s estate, given that, unlike practically every other project about the singer that’s tried and failed to get off the ground, What’s Going On will actually be able to use Gaye’s music in the film itself.
The Dead Presidents co-director gave lengthy remarks about the film to Deadline, who announced WB’s acquisition of the project earlier on Friday. Normally we don’t post this sort of lengthy quote about a project in full like we’re doing with Hughes’ remarks here, but his candor here is impressive compared to the normal boilerplate you get out of directors and producers. It’s a true passion project. Anyway, here’s the quote:
“This is so personal for me[.] When I made my first film with my brother, we were fortunate to get ‘What’s Going On’ into the trailer for ‘Menace 2 Society,’ and it was a game changer in elevating the marketing of that film. Every film of mine but the period film ‘From Hell’ had some Marvin Gaye in it, and I’ve just always connected to him. He’s the artist’s artist, with this ethereal voice that just comes out of the heavens. There have been plenty of great artists, and then Marvin, in his own lane. When you listen, in one measure you feel like you’ve read a novel. Such a rich inner life in that voice, heavenly but riddled with pain, the agony and ecstasy at the same time.
When he gained his independence in the ’70s, with that album ‘What’s Going On,’ then ‘Trouble Man’ and ‘Let’s Get It On,’ ‘I Want You’ and his final masterpiece ‘Here, My Dear,’ when it comes to vocal orchestrations and the way he layered his voice, he’s Mozart. You’ve heard of all these big-name directors that have tried for 35 years to consolidate these rights. This started with Dre, saying, ‘Let’s do this together,’ and then Jimmy came on, and Andrew Lazar, and we worked with the estate, with Motown and some other things that needed to be tied down, and we got it done.”
Impressive, huh? You can feel the enthusiasm from Hughes just radiating off the page, and it definitely makes us really excited for a Gaye biopic in a way that we weren’t, say, twelve hours ago. The director also told Deadline that he’s planning on using Gaye’s voice in the musical sequences of the film rather than have an actor do an imitation (basically every music biopic ever) or go for a hybrid approach (ala Bohemian Rhapsody), which seems to be the right choice. Nothing worse than a bad impression, except, perhaps, for a mediocre one getting plaudits for being SO ACCURATE. On the other hand, if Jesse L. Martin isn’t in this, we might have to riot. That dude deserves this for all he’s put up with.
What’s Going On will begin production in 2022 and is expected to be released in 2023. We can’t wait.