[Dixielandjazz] Forest Whitaker to direct and star in Louis Armstrong movie

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML and Musicians and Serious jazzfans lists

From: Norman Vickers, Pensacola

 

 

 


Forest Whitaker to direct and star in Satchmo biopic


The Oscar-winning actor is to essay his second jazz great, Louis Armstrong,
having previously played Charlie Parker for Clint Eastwood


*	Ben Child <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild>  
*	guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/> , 
*	Wednesday October 08 2008 10.57 BST

Forest Whitaker is to play Louis Armstrong in an officially sanctioned
biopic of the great jazz singer and trumpet player which the Oscar-winning
actor will also direct.

Named after Armstrong's best known song, What a Wonderful World will
chronicle the musician's life from his impoverished early days in New
Orleans to his death in 1971 following a long career over which he
transformed jazz and popular music as a whole.

Whitaker, who also played the jazz great Charlie Parker in 1988's Bird, will
work with Oscar Cohen, executive of the Armstrong estate and the Louis
Armstrong Educational Foundation, on the project, the latter taking on an
executive producer's role. The film is being made by France's Legende, the
company behind last year's Oscar-winning Edith Piaf biopic, La Vie en
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/117957/la.vie.en.rose>  Rose.

"Armstrong left a monumental mark on our lives and our culture," said
Whitaker. "He lived an amazing life and, through his art, shifted the way
music was played and would be heard after him, not just here in the US but
all over the world."

What a Wonderful World will mark the first time the Armstrong estate has
given its blessing to a film about the musician, nicknamed Satchmo. Cohen,
who started work with Armstrong as his road manager in the late 40s, is
granting the film-makers exclusive access to letters and other material from
the estate's archives, as well as his own memories.

Whitaker is an eye-catching choice to play Armstrong, but his decision to
direct is more surprising. Whilst hugely successful as an actor, the star of
The Last King of Scotland has made just three big screen outings behind the
cameras, none of which made much of an impression on critics. His most
recent film was 2004's First Daughter, starring Katie Holmes, while he was
also responsible for 1995's melodrama Waiting To Exhale.

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