The Jimmy Hendrix Movie?



(image via hendrix.free.fr)

A Jimmy Hendrix biopic sounds, to The Corsair, like a Best Actor and Best Picture Oscar waiting to happen. Pathbreaking black countercultural hero. Tragic death. Very blue state, chattering class stuff. Andre Benjamin seems to think so as well. This, from the September 2005 Interview Magazine:

"Mark Wahlberg: So, what's going on with the Jimi Hendrix movie? I know that you've been trying to get that off the ground for a while.

"Andre Benjamin: Honestly, I so want to do that Hendrix project, and Brian Grazer wants to do it too. Everybody wants to do it, but nobody can do anything until the family, who owns the rights to the songs, says, 'Yeah, you can do it.' For years it has been like that. I heard that Laurence Fisburne, Will Smith and Eddie Murphy tried to make a Jimmy Hendrix movie. So I'm just praying that one day the family will say, 'Well, maybe this guy can do it.'

"Mark Wahlberg: You know what? Nobody has more of the qualities you'd need to play Hendrix than you do. I think Four Brothers and the other stuff you've got coming up could really put you in a position to make that happen.

"Andre: I hope so, man. I'm just hoping to turn some heads so people say, 'Well, maybe he can do it.' I know that the people in the background want me to do it, but its all about selling that to the family. I've reached out to them. I've sent personal letters to his sister, who owns the rights, but she probably gets 100 calls a day from people wanting to do a Jimmy Hendrix project, so she's probably like 'Whatever.'"