Just like the man himself, Tate Taylor’s James Brown film is quickly becoming the hardest-working biopic in show business. Early this week the film got a star and a green light. Then came the rumors that Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, and Nelsan Ellis would all be joining the supporting cast (although as of now, those three roles are still unconfirmed). And today marks the announcement of a title and release date. The title? Get On Up. The release date? October 17, 2014.
Things are chugging along nicely for Get On Up, although we’ve still got no word about how Chadwick Boseman will be taking on the hefty singing and dancing duties of his starring role. There’s also been no mention of any prosthetics or makeup – if Boseman is going to be grafting anything onto his face to look more like the Godfather of Soul, or if he’ll just be Chadwick Boseman in a wig and the rest will be left to our imaginations.
The fall release date does hint the powers that be at Universal (the studio releasing Get On Up) might be angling for the film to pull in a few statuettes come awards season. It’s not an insane idea. Tate’s last feature, The Help, won approximately a billion awards – the majority of them going to the film’s cast (which, not coincidentally, also featured Spencer and Davis). So long as Boseman gets the singing and dancing down pat, he might just have a shot.
