Hoping to succeed where Will Smith, Terrence Howard, Cameron Crowe, and F. Gary Gray have all failed before them, Lenny Kravitz is now officially attached to play Motown legend Marvin Gaye in director Julien Temple's Midnight Love, which will be at least the third or fourth attempt to tell the singer's story on film in recent years. Part of the hold-up, naturally, has come from those who actually knew Gaye—particularly his widow, Janis Gaye, and Motown's Berry Gordy, who were both concerned that the film would focus too squarely on the "negative aspects" of his life, simply because that's what all musician biopics do. And given that Midnight Love concerns the making of that titular album, picking up with a depressed and drug-addicted Gaye attempting to bounce back from severing ties with Motown and with the help of a little "Sexual Healing," nothing seems to have changed there.
Nevertheless, Deadline says it hears that all music rights issues have been sorted out, and the film really is scheduled to start filming next year. If that's true, playing Marvin Gaye will be the first lead role for Kravitz, who's been slowly building up an acting career through Lee Daniels movies like Precious and the upcoming The Butler, as well as The Hunger Games. "From henceforth, please refer to me as Leonard Kravitz"—Lenny Kravitz, after he gets all actor-y.