Paramount's Sammy Davis Jr. Biopic Moves Forward with Writer Charles Murray
Paramount Pictures is ready to move forward with their Sammy Davis Jr. biopic, and they’ve hired Charles Murray to write the script.
The film is being produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura; fellow musical icon Lionel Richie, who was instrumental in getting the rights from Sammy Davis Jr’s estate to make the movie; and Mike Menchel. The film that’s being developed is based on several resources, including the singer’s 1965 memoir Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis Jr, which Davis wrote with Jane and Burt Boyar.
Apparently the studio looked long and hard for the right writers to take on this project, and they ended up hiring Murray, who has been a writer/producer on shows such as Sons of Anarchy and Luke Cage. According to Deadline, the “writer had read pretty much everything written about Davis Jr and came in with an encyclopedic knowledge of the iconic entertainer’s life and pretty much all dance movies.” That’s what landed him the job. Murry said:
“If you saw me, I’m 6’4″ and 290 pounds, maybe 300 if I’m being really honest. So it might surprise you that I grew up loving musicals, and gravitated to Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Elvis and James Cagney, and this little black dude I would see on TV, who held his own alongside Frank Sinatra.
“I would see movies like Ocean’s Eleven and Sammy just stood out. Singing with Frank, dancing like Fred and Gene, with none of those cats looked at him any different in those movies because he was black. I think I made the proclamation to my parents around eight that I wanted to make movies when I grew up. They’re from the South and knew all about what racial tension was and they said, ‘good luck.’ There weren’t a lot of actors on TV who looked like me. I would watch Bill Cosby as the gym teacher Chet Kincaid, and sometimes we would see Diahann Carroll in Julia. But of all those people, Sammy stood out. There was something completely unique about him and I never forgot him.”
This movie is obviously his dream project, and it seems like the kind of film he was born to be a part of. The report went on to offer the following rundown of Davis’s life and what he went through:
Davis was plenty provocative, a mix of out-sized talent and ambition, courage and defiance, with a need to constantly prove his worth at all times that led to a lot of loneliness. Murray is convinced the singer/dancer paid a price earning his way toward being the only black man on those sets and on the stages of casinos where he wasn’t allowed to book a hotel room. James Brown could support Richard Nixon, but Davis Jr took heat when he did. Davis Jr. was forced to hide his love affair with Kim Novak, and faced a backlash when he married the white Swedish actress May Britt at a time when interracial marriage was illegal in many states. Davis made his stands when he could, eventually refusing to work for companies that engaged in segregation, an effort that was helped by the likes of his Rat Pack pals Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, who did not see the world through skin color. Davis Jr marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr numerous times during the Civil Rights movement and when a 1954 car crash in San Bernardino nearly killed him and took his left eye, Davis began studying Judaism as he recovered. He converted along with wife May in 1961.
It’s said that the film will cover all of this stuff, “from his vaudeville origins to becoming a star as a member of The Rat Pack, and the highs and lows in Las Vegas and Hollywood.” Murray went on to talk about Davis Jr. more saying:
“James Brown didn’t get the same flack for bonding with Nixon because James was seen as the ultimate independent black man. Sammy had to ask himself, how do I become normal to the majority, and do I subjugate my ego and personality to do so, even when my talent is equal to or better than most everyone else? He was proving himself, every moment he was in the public eye. Imagine the toll that must take? His father and uncle would take him on walks through the city while touring, where no hotel would take them in, even ones they performed at. He understood what they are trying to avoid saying to him, as he saw the shame in the face of his father and uncles. He thought, eventually my talent will equalize the situation, but imagine being told you can be just as talented as the others, but you’ll never be equal. If I had to deal with that type of his today, at least I know I have rights and that there is a majority of people who embrace equality, so it’s only words that you can say or clandestine actions you can take to keep me from getting a job. But people were open about it back then; you’re black, stay back. You’ll never get a lead role in a studio movie ever, no matter how good you are. And this diminutive dude kept getting stronger.
“All this drove him but was his demon. He was constantly trying to impress people, and did not like being alone because that’s when the insecurities and terrible thoughts played in his head. That is what most fascinates me about him. In public he could be defiant. When threatened about dating white women, he dives in deeper. He spends money he doesn’t have. The act becomes your life. It was only during the course of interviews later in his life that he realized this, and only found peace with himself when he stopped worrying whether or not he fit in, and realized that fame doesn’t erase how people mistreat you. Being told you can play The Sands, but take your ass over there, to sleep. That colors the great time you are having and makes you not enjoy the times his life that were fabulous, those moments with Frank and Dean, making a ton of money and doing plays. What drives us can damage us. We saw it in Rocketman, the painful time Elton John went through in finding his sexual identity. And he was on top of the world.”
This Sammy David Jr. biopic is a movie that I’m very much looking forward to watching, and Murray seems like the guy that is going to deliver the kind of script that Davis Jr. deserves.