Miles Davis. Marcel Romano. Louis Malle.

Let’s get the darn thing filmed first, I know, but it’s always fun to speculate over the Oscar fortunes of the Miles Davis Movie.

Let’s assume the movie is really good, regardless if it follows a Hollywood-style biopic blueprint (like the excellent “Ray”), or the more independent, ‘deconstructed’ movie narrative we know Don Cheadle has talked about following.

Anyway… if the Miles Davis Biopic is a slam dunk, I will venture to almost guarantee a Best Actor nomination for Cheadle. He’s immensely popular and talented, and he would have just portrayed one of the artistic legends of the 20th century. Not too mention directed the film as well.

We reported in November that Herbie Hancock is planning to score the movie. Go ahead and pencil him in for a Best Original Score nomination right now.

Beyond that it’s guess work. A lot will depend on what other films are in contention the year the biopic is released. Hey, a Best Picture nomination isn’t out of the question, especially now that the category includes 10 nominees. Best Director is a possibility, as is the Best Original Screenplay.

Cinematography, Costume Design and Editing might each be in play as well. We’ll leave the other acting categories aside until we see who signs onto the film, and in what roles.

It’s not going to be “Titanic” or “Forrest Gump” or any of the ‘big’ movies that blow through the Oscars and sweep up a boatload of awards, but the Miles Davis Biopic might have just enough blend of a really good movie, the Don Cheadle factor and the Academy’s desire to honor the legacy of an entertainment icon to bring home the gold in 2011…2012…2013… ?

I’m not sure anyone knows what kind of movie Miles Davis would want produced about his life. Maybe he would want the “Ray,” Hollywood blueprint treatment.

Then again perhaps this idea of a deconstructed biopic would be more to his liking.

Cheadle: “We are coming right up on the end point. I think we are getting to the point where we may get some traction and get it going.”

I have no idea what type of traction he means. Financial, perhaps? Is it a money thing? I always figured, besides economic issues, the biggest roadblock to making the movie was Cheadle’s project schedule - the actor has some big roles on deck.

Cheadle goes on to say: “Miles Davis is a beloved artist, but not to the degree that a 17-year old would know who he is. Unfortunately, people don’t know the seeds. In my attempt to tell the story, I’m not trying to do some reverential all-of-us-bow-down-to-Miles-the-icon. I’m trying to present him as a man.”

Well that’s the big trick apparently - try to create a film that shuns the typical, Hollywood biopic narrative, but also attract a ‘not in the know’ audience with a film blueprint such an audience might generally not spark to. I think there will be a nice media wave that sweeps in tons of new/renewed Miles Davis interest that will help sell the movie. I agree that Cheadle should avoid a bow-down type movie, that was never going to be a good idea, but there is a way to show the good and bad in a manner that pleases all parties.

We’ll see. Honestly, just that Cheadle is discussing the biopic is music to my ears.

Wow, we haven’t seen this much Miles Davis Biopic-related news in…ever. A week after blaming president Bush and the economic woes of the universe on the slowdown of the making of the Miles Davis Movie, Don Cheadle recently spoke to Parade about the state of the project and his desire to portray the jazz icon.

Cheadle: “It’s been a long time coming, but we’re working on the script right now. I think it will happen. I love Miles, but you have to take everything he says with a grain of salt. He would tell a long story, and someone would go, ‘That’s amazing. Did that happen?’. He’d reply, ‘I don’t f**king know. You figure it out’.”

He added: “He wasn’t interested in what you thought about him. He was like, ‘I’m about the music. Deal with that.’ Capturing the essence of that man is a challenge.”

A challenge indeed. But I am confident Cheadle is up for it. He says he thinks it will happen. Let’s hope there is a contingency plan on the shelf by the Miles Davis Estate if for some reason Cheadle’s project loses traction and falls apart.

The image above pretty much sums it up.

Title: Miles Davis On ‘The Sound Of Miles Davis’
Date created: 02 Apr 1959
Photographer: CBS Photo Archive

Click here to view the awesome PHOTO!

On August 25, while taking a break outside the legendary Birdland nightclub in New York City, Davis was beaten by the police and arrested.

And to think he had just performed for an Armed Forces Radio broadcast that night.

I close my eyes and can visualize this sequence playing out on the big screen. How could this episode not be in the Miles Davis Biopic?

Think of the drama! Think of the dialogue, straight from the Prince of Darkness himself…

(The following is an extract from ‘Miles - The Autobiography’)

“I had just finished doing an Armed Forces Day broadcast, you know, Voice of America and all that bullshit. I had just walked this pretty white girl named Judy out to get a cab. She got in the cab, and I’m standing there in front of Birdland wringing wet because it’s a hot, steaming, muggy night in August.

“He said, “I don’t care where you work, I said move on! If you don’t move on I’m going to arrest you.”

Let’s jump ahead in the action….

“A crowd had gathered all of a sudden from out of nowhere, and this white detective runs in and BAM! hits me on the head. I never saw him coming. Blood was running down the khaki suit I had on. Then I remember Dorothy Kilgallen coming outside with this horrible look on her face… and saying, “Miles, what happened?” I couldn’t say nothing. Illinois Jacquet was there too.

“It was almost a race riot, so the police got scared and hurried up and got my ass out of there and took me to the 54th Precinct where they took pictures of me bleeding and shit. So, I’m sitting there, madder than a motherf***er, right? And they’re saying to me in the station, “So you’re the wiseguy, huh?” Then they’d bump up against me, you know, try to get me mad so they could probably knock me upside my head again. I’m just sitting there, taking it all in, watching every move they make…

I’ll just declare right now that I demand this scene be included in the film.

I won’t go into the significance of the assault as it relates to race matters of the era and its affect on Davis, how it contrasts with his experiences in Europe and other deeper sociological issues that I’d doubtless mess up anyway in trying to explain – but I will say that this incident should be in the movie.

Title: Miles Davis
Date created: 01 Jan 1955
Photographer: Bill Spilka

Click here to view the awesome PHOTO!

A larger-than-life bronze sculpture of trumpeter Miles Davis from Dwight’s Jazz series stands in the artist’s studio. Link

So consider this a new-ish feature here on Miles Davis Online - Getty Images: Inside The Miles Davis Collection

Title: Recording At 30th Street Studios
Date created: 01 Jan 1959
Photographer: Michael Ochs Archives/Stringer

Click here to view the awesome PHOTO!

April 30 to August 29, 2010

With this exhibition, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts pays tribute to Miles Davis (1926-1991), one of the twentieth century’s greatest musicians. The multimedia retrospective (musical excerpts, film and documentary clips, drawings by Miles Davis; paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mati Klarwein; photographs by Annie Leibovitz and Irving Penn; costumes, musical instruments and scores lent by the Davis family, etc.) recalls the highlights of his life and career, including his memorable concerts in Montreal.

It is an unusual encounter with a complex and committed character, a man of darkness and light, a protean artist, a creative genius who said of himself in 1987 that he had “changed the course of music history five or six times.” The scenography, entirely designed around Davis’s music and the visitor’s listening comfort, includes recordings of the most iconic pieces by this legendary figure, who still arouses passionate admiration and whose influence goes far beyond the boundaries of jazz. This initial venture into the realm of jazz continues the Museum’s exploration of links between the visual arts and music launched with Warhol Live and Imagine.