Don Cheadle becomes Miles Davis in first trailer for new biopic

Cheadle makes his directorial debut directing his own performance as the legendary jazz musician.

Hollywood is forever in search of harmonious unions between actor and subject. The near-eeriness of a performance which appears to waltz as a phantom on screen in perfect recreation of a life once lived. Jamie Foxx WAS Ray Charles. Joaquin Phoenix WAS Johnny Cash. And now Don Cheadle will be Miles Davis.

Entertainment Weekly have debuted the trailer for Miles Ahead, in which Cheadle will make his directorial debut, directing himself in the role of one of the 20th century's great innovators. The film focuses in on Davis' artistic reclusion in 1979, and the journalist (Ewan McGregor) who attempts to rustle a comeback story from him, with the two eventually embarking on a hunt to retrieve a missing tape of valuable session music. The film also promises to feature flashbacks to Davis' earlier, glory days; specifically his romance with dancer Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi) and the influence she had on his music.

An unusual approach to the man's life, and Cheadle certainly promises his ambitious attempt will seek to break the usual tropes of the biopic genre. "With someone like Miles Davis, whose life seemed to very antithetical to that, and whose art was so mercurial and spontaneous and not dedicated to any sort of form that he had done before," he told EW. "I thought it would really be totally anathema to him to do something that felt standard, so to speak."

If ever a man were to play Davis on screen, Cheadle is that man. At least, according to Davis' own nephew Vince Wilburn. Back in 2006, as he celebrated Davis' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he told attending reporters that Cheadle was the only one who could ever do justice to the role.

"I had not been reaching out for this role in any way, shape or form," the actor stated. "There was a pronouncement made, I guess — a proclamation — that I was going to play his uncle in a movie."

Having already premiered at the 2015 New York Film Festival, Miles Ahead will make its way to UK theatres 22 April.