With the likes of Johnny Cash and Ray Charles already covered, and James Brown and Miles Davis (and NWA) on the way, the latest legendary American musician to get the biopic treatment is Sam Cooke{
Cook's was the smooth voice that scored hits with songs like 'Wonderful World' (see above) and 'Twistin' The Night' Away. He had 30 hit singles between 1957 and 1964, worked with many of the greats, and unusually took control of his own business affairs, determined not to be cheated out of his considerable earnings by unscrupulous managers and accountants.
He died tragically young at the age of 33, in dubious circumstances. He was shot by Bertha Franklin, the manager of a motel Cooke had checked into with a woman called Elisa Boyer. Boyer claimed she had been kidnapped and escaped, and Franklin said she had killed Cooke in self-defense when he raged from his room looking for Boyer.
But that story has been widely questioned ever since it was first put recounted. Many believe that Cooke's unusual industry power and his involvement in the Civil Rights movement had made him a target, and that his death was an assassination conspiracy.
Intriguingly, this will be the angle the film will take. "It's the '60s, you could do it like Selma," explains Antonio, "but it's not the direction I'm going with. My pitch was a murder mystery. Who did this? And it's being written in that fashion. I'm treating it like a murder investigation."
"For years, people have becoming at us to do a movie about Sam," says Cooke's nephew Eugene Jamieson. "But Romeo was the first person who sounded like he wanted what we wanted: the truth to come out about my uncle and his death."