Hey Ya? Hey Joe? OutKast’s André 3000 to play Jimi Hendrix
LOOKING out at the world, there’s not many people who have matched Jimi Hendrix’s joy of raiding the dressing-up box and living life as a pop star peacock, with wild hair, irresistible hips and effectively looking like they’ve just dropped in from Planet Funk.
After Jimi came Parliament with George and Bootsy, then Rick James and Prince and more recently, Andre 3000 who is a man who likes to play with sound just as much as a pair of stacked heels and floor-length fluorescent coat. With that, it makes perfect sense that the OutKast harlequin should be given the nod to play Hendrix in a new biopic.
The film, All Is By My Side, is currently in pre-production which is something of a surprise to industry insiders what with Hendrix films being given short-shrift by the Hendrix estate. Basically, they don’t let films happen. However, Andre 3000 has been signed up to play the rock superstar in his ’66 breakthrough year. The film is to be directed by Three Kings writer John Ridley, who also wrote the screenplay. So how is this going ahead? Most likely, the film won’t use any of Hendrix’s back-catalogue or it’ll get the chop at the 11th hour, just like all those other films that never made the screen.
“Everybody wants to do the movie, but there are so many things that go into a biopic,” André told MTV in 2008. “It’s kinda like, until you are on set doing it, you can’t say what’s going on.” Of course, ‘Dre has previous movie experience having starred in OutKast musical, Idlewild and Guy Ritchie’s Revolver.
It feels like it’s time to see Jimi on the big screen and sure enough, his record company wouldn’t mind putting out yet another best-of.
Posted: 8th, May 2012 | In: Music Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
