Matt Dillon (You, Me and Dupree) is in final negotiations to play Leonard Chess, the legendary founder of the South Side Chicago blues label Chess Records, in Sony/BMG Film’s Cadillac Records.
Darnell Martin (Their Eyes Were Watching God) wrote the script and is directing. Sony/BMG’s Sofia Sondervan and Andrew Lack are producing.
The period piece follows the rise and fall of Chess Records, which launched the careers of such R&B greats as Muddy Waters, Etta James and Chuck Berry. Chess, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, scoured the South, checking out the various blues scenes and selling records from the back of his Cadillac.
Filming is set to begin in January in New Jersey and Chicago.
