Jeremy here...
When The Hollywood Reporter ran an exclusive yesterday claiming that the family of legendary soul crooner Sam Cooke had authorized a biopic that would function as a "murder-mystery", it sounded... off. The Cooke family, led by Sam's brother L.C., have been developing a film with writer-director Carl Franklin since 2013, and they've always said they're working from Peter Guralnick's biography, DREAM BOOGIE: THE TRIUMPH OF SAM COOKE. Had they suddenly lost their mind and signed off on a film from a producer I've never heard of, a screenwriter with no feature credits, based on a self-published book with three reviews on Amazon?
Of course not. L.C. Cooke contacted Rolling Stone today, and denied any involvement in this "murder-mystery" film. L.C. is still working with Franklin and ABKCO Films on a biopic drawn from Guralnick's biography (which is good, but inferior to Daniel Wolff's YOU SEND ME). I also know the family was quite fond of Kemp Powers's ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, a terrific play detailing what might've gone down when Cassius Clay hung out with Cooke, Malcolm X and Jim Brown in a hotel room following the boxer's shocking defeat of Sonny Liston (it's playing in Denver right now, and you should absolutely go if you live in the area). There's been talk of bringing the play to the big screen, but securing the music rights pose a significant challenge - and there's no way to do the play justice without access to several Cooke songs.
But as I've been repeatedly told for several years now, there's not going to be an "authorized" Sam Cooke biopic without L.C. Cooke's involvement. And contrary to The Hollywood Reporter's story, L.C. has nothing to do with the murder-mystery project.
