Morgan Freeman has signed a deal to portray Jazz impresario Duke Ellington in a new film called The Jazz Ambassadors.
New Line Cinema has acquired the pitch and assigned Jeremy Donner to write the script. King Arthur’s Antoine Fuqua will direct.
The Jazz Ambassadors follows the Ellington orchestra’s tour of Iraq during a 1963 coup led by the CIA, which led to Saddam Hussein coming to power. The film will show how the organisation used Ellington’s appeal to their own ends, planting spies among his musicians.