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At this point, you could make a compelling film about all the aborted attempts to make a compelling film about Marvin Gaye.

In 2008, F. Gary Gray (Friday, Straight Outta Compton) signed on to helm a movie called Marvin. In subsequent years, Cameron Crowe, Jamie Foxx, Scott Rudin and, most recently, Dr. Dre all attached themselves to different projects about the late Motown icon, each of which failed to see the light of day.

The same year that Gray was beginning work on Marvin, a James Gandolfini–produced film about the...

Just because summer is over doesn't mean there's a shortage of hot stuff. Exhibit A: Kygo's latest remix.  The record producer behind remixes of Whitney Houston's "Higher Love," Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It" and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" has released his latest musical reimagining, this time for Donna Summer's iconic 1979 hit, "Hot Stuff." The legendary singer, who died in 2012, took home one of her five career Grammy wins in 1980 for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in honor of the song, which also marked the first time the category was presented at the Grammy Awards.   "Donna Summer is...

Tina Turner has come out of retirement at age 80 to release a Kygo remix of her 1984 mega hit, “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” The new dancefloor-ready rendition also comes with a new visual.

In the Sarah Bahbah-directed video, Laura Harrier and Charles Michael Davis star as star-crossed lovers who, despite looking on paper as having a strong and playful relationship, behind the scenes the couple lacks a deep emotional connection to last. In the end, one of them must walk away.

“I couldn’t be more excited to collaborate with Tina Turner,...

When Whitney Houston recorded her cover of Steve Winwood’s 1986 hit “Higher Love” in 1990, it was meant for her third album I’m Your Baby Tonight. By that time, Houston was already a multi-platinum pop star, and the plan for next LP was for the superstar to pivot further into a more R&b sound. <“When [producer] Narada Michael Walden sent me ‘Higher Love’ with the Whitney vocal, we didn’t want her being a cover artist at that time,” Clive Davis, the veteran record label impresario who helped discover Houston,...

Like her American soulmate and former collaborator Prince, Kate Bush generated cartloads of top-flight recordings during her hypercreative peak years that, for whatever reasons, didn’t make it onto albums. This set finally bundles the evidence: 34 tracks, including some of the avant-pop auteur’s most gorgeous, extravagant, intimate, and bonkers material — b-sides, remixes, and an album’s-worth of stray, often strange covers.

Take the reading of “Rocket Man,” written by another soulmate, Elton John, arranged with fiddle and uilleann pipes into loping Celtic reggae (something to do, perhaps, with the “high as a kite” line?...

Justin Bieber clearly knows how to set the mood.  The 24-year-old singer enjoyed a night out with Hailey Baldwin on Wednesday and couldn't resist serenading his leading lady. The impromptu concert took place at the Montage Beverly Hills in California around 6:15 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Bieber had been waiting for the valet to bring around his Lamborghini when the Grammy winner decided to belt out Marvin Gaye's 1982 hit "Sexual Healing." "She was cracking up," an insider said, "perhaps a bit embarrassed but still very happy and taken by it. There is clearly a lot of love in her eyes when she is around him. He was singing pretty [loudly]. You could hear it from a good...

Justin Bieber's in a singing mood ... and based on what he's singing, he's also in the mood to get some! The Biebs was waiting with the missus, Hailey Bieber, outside the Montage Hotel in Bev Hills Wednesday night when he broke into song and dance ... inspired by Marvin Gaye. Check out Jb in the vid -- the "Sexual Healing" serenading starts off directed at Hailey, but then he pivots and belts out the lyrics...

Despite her lack of material the past 25 years — only two albums of all-new material since 1993’s The Red Shoes — Kate Bush has been one of those singers that always seemed to be famous; her singular, operatic voice that had zero comparisons but countless imitators. But a year before her 1978 debut album The Kick Inside, Bush was learning stage presence and establishing her career with the KT Bush Band, a rock and soul group that blended Bush’s original material with covers like Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman,” Marvin Gaye’s...

Kate Bush is reissuing her entire studio catalog – including numerous rare tracks, B-sides and cover versions – on a series of remastered vinyl and CD box sets. The campaign launches November 16th with the first two of four vinyl packages and the first of two CD sets, via Rhino. The second wave of material arrives November 30th.

The art-rock icon personally remastered the material with producer/engineer James Guthrie, who previously worked on Bush’s 1985 LP, Hounds of Love. The singer’s 10 albums are spread across the three vinyl boxes, and...

Dr. Dre has set his sights on another film project, and for any Motown fans out there, this one's going to be good: the rapper and business mogul is working on a movie about legendary musician Marvin Gaye.

According to Variety, Dre has secured the notoriously difficult approval of Gaye's family, as well as the rights to Gaye's music from Sony/Atv Music Publishing. This will guarantee the use of hits like "Sexual Healing" and "What's Going On." The soul singer was one of Motown's bestselling artists before he was tragically shot by his father during a family dispute in 1984, but his legacy and influence on the music industry have continued to live on. Because of that, Dre isn't the first person to be interested in bringing Gaye's story to the big screen.

Many others have attempted to adapt Gaye's life story in a Hollywood biopic, but getting an official...

Dr. Dre is developing a movie about Marvin Gaye, making a deal with Sony/Atv Music Publishing to secure the rights to the late Motown icon's music.

Reps for Dre and Sony/Atv confirmed the deal to Rolling Stone, though the film remains in the very early stages of development. Sources tell Rolling Stone that, among other conditions, the project would need the approval of Motown founder Berry Gordy to move forward. A representative for Gordy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As Variety reports, Dr. Dre...

It's official: Ariana Grande is back! The singer, who had been keeping a low-profile for months, made a surprise appearance during Kygo's set at Coachella on April 20, performing her new single "No Tears Left to Cry" live for the first time, just hours after she released the music video. The crowd went wild as Ariana took to the stage rocking her signature high ponytail along with a lavender crop top and skirt, matching fingerless gloves, knee-high boots, and a black fanny pack. The track is the first the 24-year-old singer has released since her Manchester concert in May 2017, where 22 people were killed and 500 were injured after a suicide bomber detonated an explosion in the foyer of the arena. The live performance is only her second this year, her first being at Washington DC's March For Our Lives rally on March 24. Besides belting out her new single, Ariana also sang...

Ariana Grande's comeback continues! The singer took to the stage on Friday at the 2018 Coachella music festival in Indio, California and gave a short, surprise performance during Kygo's set. She performed her new single, "No Tears Left to Cry," which was released that day, as well as Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing." Grande sported a lavender-tinted crimped hair and wore it in her signature high ponytail. She paired the hairstyle with a matching lavender cropped tank top and flared skirt and nude thigh-high boots. The singer has largely stayed out of the spotlight and off social media for months and had only performed once before this year as she works on new...

Ariane Grande stunned the Coachella crowd on the first night of weekend #2 by taking the stage during Kygo's set ... and debuting her brand new single. Grande's live performance Friday night of "No Tears Left to Cry" came just hours after she released the single ... her first new track since last year's Manchester bombing. She also sang Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" with Kygo during her surprise appearance. It was her second live performance of...

Foreign buyers showed great interest in the stories of music's superstar personalities; says one analyst, "These projects have a built-in global audience in music fans."This story first appeared in the Nov. 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Producers at the American Film Market have been raiding their record collections. As serious drama becomes harder to package and sell globally, music biopics are enticing foreign buyers.

A sampling at AFM included Don Cheadle's Kill the Trumpet Player, about legendary jazz maestro Miles Davis, which Im Global is selling; Good Universe's Elton John story Rocketman with Tom Hardy; Foresight's Spinning Gold, with Justin Timberlake as music producer Neil Bogart; Arrow Entertainment's Sexual Healing, starring Jesse L. Martin as Marvin Gaye; John Cusack playing Beach Boy Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, from sales group Lionsgate; and biopics on Janis Joplin (from Im Global), Keith Moon (Exclusive Media), and Tupac Shakur (Morgan Creek...

So, are we looking at the next production woes saga? We've already been through the various dramas of "World War Z" and "Jane Got A Gun," and now a situation is arising around the Marvin Gaye biopic "Sexual Healing." As Screen Daily reports, it looks like financing for the Julian Temple directed film has been on shaky ground, a situation likely not helped by the fact that Focus Features has stepped away from the movie. In fact, money issues, scheduling and location problems actually put a halt to filming one month ago, and there is still three weeks left on schedule. Crew members haven't been fully paid at this point for their participation yet either. Ouch. To recap: Jesse L. Martin and Brendan Gleeson star in the Lauren Goodman penned movie, based on the book "Trouble Man," that would chronicle Gaye's 1981 stint in Ostend, Belgium, where he recorded his biggest-selling album,...

Well, this doesn't look good. A month ago, we reported that shooting had been suspended for what was to be 2 weeks on Julien Temple’s Marvin Gaye biopic, Sexual Healing, starring Jesse L. Martin's (as Gaye), S. Epatha Merkerson (as Marvin’s Gaye’s mother, Alberta Cooper Gay), and Dwight Henry (as Marvin Gaye’s father, Marvin Gay, Sr.). Focus Features International, the company that picked up the project, and shopped it at the Cannes Film Festival last month, said, in response to the announced 2 week hiatus, that it didn't have anything to do with financing, or any other problems that would hurt the...

Fresh questions have been raised about the likely completion date for Julien Temple’s Marvin Gaye film Sexual Healing.

It has emerged that Focus Features - who boarded the project earlier this year - is no longer involved in the film.

Shooting stopped over a month ago, reportedly because of scheduling and location issues.

A well-placed source has told ScreenDaily that crew members have not yet been paid fully for their work on the film.

There are understood to be three weeks left on a nine-and-a-half-week shoot.

Speaking prior to the Cannes Film Festival, Sexual Healing producer Jimmy De Brabant sought to allay the uncertainty surrounding the film. He pointed to a cash flow problem with the American investor “that has lasted much longer than expected” but said this was now resolved.

The producers are understood to have told the crew that the funding promised had not yet arrived but are urging patience.

Last month, Brendan Gleeson...

Jesse L. Martin has replaced Lenny Kravitz in the Marvin Gaye biopic Sexual Healing. Martin originally had been attached to play the late singer in a version produced by James Gandolfini -- who also had plans to co-star as music promoter Freddy Cousaert -- in 2008.

After the project stalled, Kravitz signed on for the lead role in the Julien Temple-directed movie in November, but Gaye's son Marvin Gaye III voiced his objections to the project, which was said to focus on Gaye's life in the '80s when he

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Back in 2008, Jesse L. Martin was attached to play Marvin Gaye in the biopic Sexual Healing. The project pretty much stalled until late last year, when Lenny Kravitz was announced as the new star of the film. Now yet another iteration is upon us, with Martin back onboard, according to Deadline. What's going on, movie? (That joke hurts us more than it hurts you.)...

The Italian Job director is taking on Tony Soprano in a battle to portray tragic soul man Marvin Gaye on the big screen.

F. Gary Gray has just signed on to direct the biopic Marvin, which will go head to head with actor James Gandolfini's Sexual Healing, which will star Rent's Jesse L. Martin as the smooth singer.

Music mogul David Foster will co-produce the Gray film, which will feature a soundtrack of Gaye originals, which a yet-to-be-cast star will lip sync to.

Gaye was shot to death by his father in 1984.

Both Sexual Healing and Marvin have been projects in work for some time and both have been held up by music rights.

Foster has reportedly secured a package of Gaye's biggest hits, while Gandolfini and his co-producers have secured the rights to Gaye's post-Motown tunes for Sexual Healing.

Gray tells Daily Variety he can't wait to get started on his labour of love: "This is my passion project, the one that I wake up every day thinking about."...

Law & Order veteran Jesse L. Martin is expected to leave the long-running NBC drama after nine years.

Anthony Anderson is in final negotiations to come on board and fill the void left by Martin's departure. Anderson will play a new detective partnered with Jeremy Sisto's Cyrus Lupo.

Martin will film one more episode of the Wolf Films/Universal Media Studios series, in which his character, Detective Ed Green, will be written off, sources said.

The actor had signed on to do the first 13 episodes this season with an option for more.

Martin, who recently wrapped the feature Peter and Vandy, next is set to portray Marvin Gaye in the biopic Sexual Healing, which is expected to begin production in late April or early May. He is repped by Endeavor and manager Bob McGowan.

"Law & Order" continues Anderson's streak of dramatic roles that includes FX's The Shield, the Oscar-winning The Departed and, most recently, on Fox's gritty cop drama K-Ville, for which he landed an Image Award nomination.

James Gandolfini has come aboard to star in and produce Sexual Healing, a biopic about singer Marvin Gaye.

Jesse L. Martin already is set to play Gaye in the film, which will be directed by Lauren Goodman.

The film focuses on the last years of Gaye's life. Gandolfini will play Gaye's manager, Freddy Cousaert, the promoter who guided the singer through the recording of his biggest-selling album, Midnight Love. Goodman wrote the script loosely based on Steven Turner's book Trouble Man.

Gandolfini will produce via his Attaboy shingle with his partner Alexandra Ryan. Also producing are Ayo Davis, Efuru Flowers and Roger Haber.

Gary Hamilton's Arclight Films will executive produce and handle international sales for the $15 million production. Principal photography is scheduled to begin April 15 on locations in Massachusetts, Ostend, Belgium, and Los Angeles.

Victor Syrmis is executive producer with Hamilton.

Arclight Films is handling sales at Berlin's European Film Market next week.

Gandolfini, repped by Endeavor, won the SAG Award on Sunday night for outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series for The Sopranos.

CANNES -- D. Stevens has come aboard to direct Marvin -- The Life Story of Marvin Gaye, which producer Duncan McGillivray is prepping. Stevens, a veteran unit still photographer, is making his directorial debut with Tricoast Studios Prods.' The Pet, which will debut in the Cannes market. The Marvin Gaye biopic plans to incorporate 24 of the soul singer's songs into a script written by Robert Scharrer. Roberta Flack will serve as music supervisor. McGillivray said the $40 million production will begin filming in six months in Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles. A competing project about Gaye's final years also is in preproduction. Jesse L. Martin is set to portray Gaye in Sexual Healing, an indie drama written and to be directed by Lauren Goodman.