Marvin Gaye is an obvious choice for a music biopic.  Cameron Crowe worked on a Gaye movie for years with Terrence Howard as the latest candidate for the lead role.  As Crowe's project toils in development, Julien Temple may swoop in to make his own Gaye biopic, Midnight Love.  Many are picking up Deadline's report tonight, but the Evening Standard reported earlier in the week that Lenny Kravitz is Temple's choice to play the Prince of Soul.  Midnight Love starts in 1981 London and tracks the final years of Gaye's life, particularly how music promoter Freddy Cousaert helped Gaye as he struggled with alcohol and tax problems. The singer found renewed success with the release of Midnight Love and Top 10 Hit "Sexual Healing," capped off by two Grammy wins and a U.S. tour.  After the troubled tour, Gaye retreated to his parents' house in Los Angeles, where his father shot him dead in April 1984.  More after the jump.

I have doubts that Kravitz can pull off Gaye's sultry voice, but who can?  Kravitz has impressed as a musician-turned-actor in Precious and The Hunger Games, so I'm willing to give him a shot in this story that is clearly meant for the big screen.

Here is a clip of Gaye delivering one of the all-time great performances of the National Anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game of all places:

In other casting news: Denis O’Hare, Bradford Cox, and Griffin Dunne joined the cast of The Dallas Buyers Club.  The film is based on the true story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), a heterosexual man who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986.  Woodroof was given six months to live, but instead survived six years on the medication he smuggled into the U.S. that he shared with other patients.  Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto also co-star.  According to THR, O'Hare and Dunne are both playing doctors.  Cox, better known as the frontman of Deerhunter, plays the lover of Leto's cross-dressing character who is dying of AIDS.

Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y.) is currently shooting Dallas Buyers Club in New Orleans with a script by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack.

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