For the first time, the family of Motown hero Marvin Gaye has given its blessing to a TV or film project documenting the singer-songwriter’s often chaotic life, courtesy of Jamie Foxx. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Ray star has stepped in to produce a limited series about the Prince of Motown, whose life bounced between the highs of “Sexual Healing” and “Let’s Get It On,” and the lows of a years-long struggle with addiction and drugs.
Filmmakers have been trying to get a Gaye picture off the ground for years; F. Gary Gray, Cameron Crowe, and James Gandolfini had all tried to tell his story at various points, but never managed to secure the family’s consent. Now, the singer’s son, Marvin Gaye III, has signed on to executive produce alongside Foxx, calling the series “a powerful and definitive telling of Marvin Gaye’s life story.”
There’s no word yet on what network the series will be shopped to, or who will play Gaye when it’s eventually filmed. (It’s worth noting, though, that Foxx himself is 48, just four years older than Gaye was when he died in 1984, after being shot by his father in the aftermath of an argument.)