Like most actors, Michael K. Williams has a dream role. Unlike most actors, however, Williams might actually get a chance to play his. Williams has been talking about his love of jazz musician Miles Davis for years now, even describing the project as being “in production” in a 2014 interview with blackfilm.com. In that interview, the actor described the movie — or that iteration of the movie, anyways — as being called “Miles And Me” and focusing on the friendship between Davis and his biographer, Quincy Troupe Jr. And while we have seen another actor breath life into a Miles Davis passion project — Don Cheadle‘s underrated 2016 film “Miles Ahead” — there might be light at the end of the tunnel for “Miles And Me” as well.
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In a recent interview with Radar Radio, Williams was asked about his long-rumored Miles Davis biopic and provided this encouraging update:
That’s happening. That’s very much so happening. That’s in the works right now. That will probably, hopefully — well, you know, knock on wood — that’ll probably be going into production the first quarter of 2018. That’s the goal. Hollywood, stay tuned, right?
For as much fun as it is to see Williams play characters like Omar in “The Wire” or Leonard in “Hap And Leonard,” one gets the impression that the vaguely menacing archetype is something that Williams could play in his sleep by now. This was the subject of his self-reflective commercial (see below) for The Atlantic, where the actor struggled to make sense of the roles that he was being offered versus the roles he’d like to play. I, for one, would love to see another movie on the complicated life of Miles Davis and see Michael K. Williams get his day as a leading man. And if one movie satisfies both of those desires? Oh, what is it the kids say these days? “Shut up and take my money.” [Fact]