Warner Bros. Acquir Marv Gaye Bpic 'What's Gog On' - Variety

Contents:

• WARNER BROS LANDS ALLEN HUGH-DIRECTED MARV GAYE FILM ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’; DR. DRE, JIMMY IOVE TO PRODUCE
• WARNER BROS. ACQUIR MARV GAYE BPIC ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ WH DR. DRE, JIMMY IOVE PRODUCG
• DR. DRE-PRODUCED MARV GAYE BPIC HEAD TO SCREENS 2023
• DR. DRE PRODUCG MARV GAYE BPIC, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’
• IN SPIKE LEE’S FUR NEW FILM, MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS STILL FIGHTG THE POWER
• MARV GAYE
• 50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER
• MARV GAYE'S "WHAT'S GOG ON"
• A MARV GAYE MIL BPIC WH THE FULL BACKG OF MOTOWN IS THE WORKS
• MARV GAYE - WHAT'S GOG ON (THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARV GAYE)
• TAMMI TERRELL Y MARV GAYE: L DUETO PERFECTO AL DRAMA MáS TERRIBLE

WARNER BROS LANDS ALLEN HUGH-DIRECTED MARV GAYE FILM ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’; DR. DRE, JIMMY IOVE TO PRODUCE

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has land What’s Gog On, a bpic of inic soul sger Marv Gaye that Allen Hugh will direct, and produce wh Dr.

The stud acquired a script by poet-playwright Marc Gardley (he wrote the mil The Color Purple for WB) and the sger’s tate and Motown are part of the al so there will be rights to e all of Gaye’s signature songs. Every film of me but the perd film From Hell had some Marv Gaye , and I’ve jt always nnected to him.

The Marv Gaye tate and Motown are squarely aboard, wh the sger’s widow, Jan Gaye, beg an executive producer along wh Suzanne Passe. Hugh and the producers immediately will beg the search for the actor to play Gaye.

WARNER BROS. ACQUIR MARV GAYE BPIC ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ WH DR. DRE, JIMMY IOVE PRODUCG

Not only do pict the tumultuo relatnship he had wh his father, celebrat the life of the women who fluenced Gaye’s reer and spired some of the most inic love songs of all time. Gaye’s early reer helped shape the Motown sounds of the ’60. Gaye’s mise was tragic: A day before his 45th birthday 1984, he was shot ad by his father.

Gaye was ducted posthumoly to the Songwrers Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Hugh said he expects to e Gaye’s voice the pictn of his songs the film. Has acquired Marv Gaye bpic “What’s Gog On, ” Variety has nfirmed.

DR. DRE-PRODUCED MARV GAYE BPIC HEAD TO SCREENS 2023

After a number of tri to adapt Gaye’s story for the big screen, Warner Bros. Has stck a al that clus a script by poet-playwright Marc Gardley and the rights to e all of Gaye’s signature songs, as his tate and Motown were part of the agreement.

Gaye’s life has long warranted s place among great mic bpics.

DR. DRE PRODUCG MARV GAYE BPIC, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’

Mart and Lenny Kravz have all failed to get the thorizatn om Gaye’s fay to tell his story. Instead of a tradnal, lear bpic, “What’s Gog On” will thread Gaye’s past wh the events that shaped his fal tour to rult a “mil odyssey” and “theatril experience, ” acrdg to Deadle Hollywood, which first broke the news about Warners acquirg the bpic.

Marv Gaye is gettg the bpic treatment, Deadle reported Thursday.

IN SPIKE LEE’S FUR NEW FILM, MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS STILL FIGHTG THE POWER

Dre and Interspe Rerds -founr Jimmy Iove are among the Gaye's widow, Jan Gaye, and Motown Rerds are on board wh the project, the film will have the rights to e Gaye's mic, a key ponent that earlier attempts to brg Gaye's life to screen lacked. Hugh has put Gaye's mic projects gog back to "Menace, " which ed "What's Gog On" the trailer.

MARV GAYE

" The lead role has not yet been st, but Hugh says he's hopg to fd an actor whose voice n blend wh Gaye's, whose real vols will be ed throughout the film. Dre is set to produce a bpic about Marv Gaye, Deadle reports.

Acrdg to Deadle, What’s Gog On is beg veloped partnership wh Motown and Gaye’s tate, so filmmakers will have the rights to all of the sger’s signature songs. Copyright and legal issu stalled or nceled several past movie attempts to tell Gaye’s story. Every film of me, but the perd film From Hell, had some Marv Gaye and I’ve jt always nnected to him.

50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER

Hugh add that several “big-name directors” have tried to nsolidate the rights to release a documentary about Gaye for the past 35 years.

Along wh Gaye’s tate and Motown, the inic artist’s widow Jan Gaye is also on board wh the film as an executive producer.

Deadle reports that producers have begun the search for an actor to play Gaye and that What’s Gog On will have the largt budget for a bpic about an Ain Amerin mician ever, upwards of $80 ln.

MARV GAYE'S "WHAT'S GOG ON"

“Not only do pict the tumultuo relatnship he had wh his father, celebrat the life of the women who fluenced Gaye’s reer and spired some of the most inic love songs of all time, ” the scriptn adds. The film will also explore Gaye’s cultural and artistic legacy; as a drivg force shapg Motown’s sound the 1960s, a lastg fluence on R&B ntemporary subgenr and as the first Black sger to sign a ln-dollar rerd al.

A MARV GAYE MIL BPIC WH THE FULL BACKG OF MOTOWN IS THE WORKS

In “What’s Happeng Brother, ” a shimmerg cut om his classic 1971 album “What’s Gog On, ” Marv Gaye sgs om the perspective of an Amerin soldier who’s jt returned home om Vietnam. “Can’t fd no work, n’t fd no job, ” he laments before layg out his bewilrment unsparg terms ma only more plative by how tenrly Gaye livers them: “I jt don’t unrstand what’s gog on across this land. By this pot the story, we’ve already gotten to know the men, but hearg them sg Gaye’s words, we e to unrstand how eply they were bond by the shared experience Lee’s film seeks to illumate.

”Yet nearly 50 years after Gaye ptured the tumult of that early-’70s moment, “What’s Gog On” speaks no ls vividly of our own era. Racism, poverty, police vlence, unemployment, the stctn of the environment — ’s all there Gaye’s masterpiece, a landmark of Amerin prott mic all the more powerful bee me om an artist not prevly regnized as a polil figure. More recently, artists like Solange, Frank Ocean and Blood Orange have taken spiratn om Gaye’s tailed groov and empathetic anyone faiar wh the history of Motown, where Gaye rerd for the majory of his reer, has likely heard the stori of how the soul legend (who died 1984 after he was shot by his father) battled wh Motown founr Berry Gordy Jr.

MARV GAYE - WHAT'S GOG ON (THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARV GAYE)

Over his termatn to break om the label’s factory-like approach to songwrg and productn to create somethg more expansive and style Gaye veloped for “What’s Gog On” — which he produced himself, much of Detro over a sgle 10-day stretch — was lh but mournful, peppered wh Lat percsn and lightly gild wh strgs played by members of the Detro Symphony Orchtra. Volly, Gaye “fally learned how to sg” on “What’s Gog On, ” he told bgrapher David Rz.

”In fact, the mic is so pretty that ’s possible to lose foc on Gaye’s stark lyrics about the “trigger-happy policg” he tails “Inner Cy Blu (Make Me Wanna Holler). ” (Of tertwg Blanchard’s mic and Gaye’s songs the new movie, Lee said: “They go together the same way Aaron Copland went together wh Public Enemy ‘He Got Game.

TAMMI TERRELL Y MARV GAYE: L DUETO PERFECTO AL DRAMA MáS TERRIBLE

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angel Tim) Which isn’t to say that Gaye ma the album wh such a clear-head sense of purpose.