Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Miles Ahead (2015) - Cheadle succeeds with jazz biopic passion project

10/01/2020

Miles Ahead (2015) - Cheadle succeeds with jazz biopic passion project

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Star Don Cheadle blurred out in B/W but with colored specks of reflection on a cool poster for his own Miles Ahead

We meet master jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in a creative and personal crisis. In the same period of time a Rolling Stones journalist gets lucky in approaching the legend after a 5 year break from music. Davis demands a lot - too much - of his wife, and he doesn't create in this period.

Miles Ahead is written by Steven Baigelman (Feeling Minnesota (1996)) and debuting co-writer/co-producer/director/star Don Cheadle (Colors (1988)), with Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (Ali (2001, both)) contributing story elements.
It is an unusual depiction of a musical giant, which springs along with creatively free interpretations back and forth in time, with an obviously deeply personally involved Cheadle. He makes a distinguished portrait of Davis, and certainly not a romanticized portrait; SPOILER Davis cheats, is unreasonable, addicted to drugs, unpredictable and dangerous, apparently having lost his gift with a trumpet, - which he seems to regain at the very end.
Miles Ahead is perhaps not as fully rounded as it could have been, but it is a worthy venture in free form jazz filmmaking with nerve.

Related posts:

Don Cheadle: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - Whedon disappoints with less fun, huge, ugly sequel (actor)
Flight (2012) - Character study masterpiece from Zemeckis and Washington (co-star)
The Guard (2011) - J. McDonagh's uproarious crime comedy debut (co-star)
Iron Man 2 (2010) - Favreau and Theroux's boisterous, entertaining sequel (co-star)
Boogie Nights (1997) - Anderson's irresistable porn 'Casino' (co-star)

Don Cheadle talks about the making of the movie in this 5-minute video

Cost: 8.5 mil. $
Box office: 5.1 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.6 times its cost)
[Miles Ahead premiered 10 October (New York Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. The idea for making the film came around during production of Ali (2001). Relatives to Davis finally got Cheadle involved. Cheadle has stated that Ewan McGregor was cast for his box office appeal. Financing was achieved partly through crowdfunding. Shooting took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. The film opened #32 to a 114k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 527 theaters, grossing 2.6 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 1.7 mil. $ (33.3 %) and the UK with 242k $ (4.7 %). The film won a Grammy. According to The-Numbers the film made 335k $ on the home video market. Cheadle has not directed a feature since, but he has made 4 episodes of House of Lies (2014-16); he returned as an actor in Captain America: Civil War (2016). McGregor returned in Jane Got a Gun (2015). Miles Ahead is fresh at 74 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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10/01/2020

Miles Ahead (2015) - Cheadle succeeds with jazz biopic passion project

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