Lenny Kravitz is to play Marvin Gaye in a film of the last years of the late American soul singer’s life.
According to The Evening Standard, the film is being made by Julien Temple.
It will be singer Kravitz’s first major film role, having most recently appeared as a stylist in teen blockbuster The Hunger Games. Janis Gaye, the singer’s second and last wife, has said she feels “very sceptical” about the project.
The film is reported to chart the final years of Gaye’s life. The soul legend lived in London in the early 1980s, when he was suffering an addiction to alcohol and was embroiled in problems relating to unpaid tax.
Gaye briefly managed to reduce his drug dependency and regain his confidence after relocating to Ostend, Belgium. He died after being shot by his own father in Los Angeles, California on March 31, 1984.
Kravitz is also reported to be working on an album titled Negrophilia. He told Billboard earlier this year: “It is very funky, very, very raw. [2011’s] Black And White America was very produced. Although it’s all natural and organic, it’s a very produced record. That’s the mode I was in at that time. But (Negrophilia) is a very raw, jagged-edged album.”
Photo credit; Jim Hendin & The Motown Archive