Actor-director Don Cheadle will attend the “Miles Ahead” Cincinnati red carpet premiere and after party March 26.
Cheadle starred as jazz icon Miles Davis in the film, shot entirely in Greater Cincinnati in July 2014.
The 7 p.m. screening at the Esquire Theatre in Clifton, and after party in Over-the-Rhine, is a fund-raiser for the Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission.
Tickets are $200 each for both events, or $50 per person for the 9 p.m. after party at the Transept OTR, 1205 Elm St.
The commission’s “Kind of Blue” evening – named after a 1959 Davis album featured in the film – begins with arrivals on the red carpet at 6 p.m. at the Esquire, 320 Ludlow Ave.
In addition to starring in the film, Cheadle made his directorial debut in “Miles Ahead” and wrote the screenplay with Steven Baigelman, who wrote the James Brown “Get On Up” film starring Chadwick Boseman (“42”).
Producers include Davis’s son and daughter, Erin and Cheryl Davis, and his nephew, Vince Wilburn Jr. The three also manage Davis’s estate.
Ewan McGregor (“Star Wars,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” “Trainspotting”) stars in the film as Dave Braden, a “Rolling Stone” reporter. Braden helps Davis recover a stolen audio recording in New York City in 1979, as Davis was ending his self-imposed five-year “silent period” out of the public eye.
Michael Stuhlberg (“Boardwalk Empire”) plays a producer in the film.
In flashbacks, Kentucky native EmayatzyCorinealdi (“Middle of Nowhere,” “Criminal Minds,” “Addicted”) plays the musician’s first wife in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Davis died in 1991 at age 65.
Tickets for both events or the after party are available at the FilmCincinnati website.
Jazz greats Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Wayne Shorter, Gil Evans and Tony Williams are portrayed in the film by local and regional musicians. Keyboard player Joshua Jessen from Clifton (Bill Evans), and bassist J.T. Thigpen of Madisonville (Paul Chambers), will tell me about filming their roles on WVXU-FM’s “Around Cincinnati” 7 p.m. Sunday March 27.
The film commission “Kind of Blue” announcement confirms my March 1 blog saying Cheadle could attend the local premiere here before its April release.
“Miles Ahead” arrives in Greater Cincinnati on April 22, after opening in New York and Los Angeles on April 1. The film premiered to rave reviews at the New York Film Festival in October.
