The upcoming biopic ‘What’s Going On‘ of iconic soul singer Marvin Gaye is moving forward in a big way.
It was just announced that Warner Bros has landed the rights to the film, which is being directed/produced by Allen Hughes, who is best known for directing Dead Presidents and Menace II Society with his brother, Albert.
Additionally. Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are set to be involved as producers.
The studio acquired a script by poet-playwright Marcus Gardley (he wrote the musical The Color Purple for WB) and the singer’s estate and Motown are part of the deal so there will be rights to use all of Gaye’s signature songs. This finally will bring to the screen the singer’s story, after many previous attempts by different filmmakers stalled or fell short of the rights needed.
Safe to say, Hughes is ridiculously excited to direct this project. It’s a dream come true for him.
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.
The budget for this flick is expected to be over $80 million, so he’ll have a lot of cash to play around with.
Now they just need to find their lead actor. You got any suggestions?
