Singer and actor Lenny Kravitz is planning to take on playing late performer Marvin Gaye in a feature that has caught the eire of the "Let Love Rule" musician's former classmate, Marvin Gaye III.
"The producers and directors of this film are very wrong and shameful," Marvin Gaye III told TMZ. "[They're] trying to do a film about a low period in his life. They don't even know the whole story."
Kravitz will play the late singer under the working title, Sexual Healing, which reportedly centers on Gaye's life in the '80s, a period in which he battled drug abuse and depression.
Gaye's father shot and killed him in 1984.
Gaye III said that he and Kravitz are schoolmates and continue to be friends, but said he wants to meet with Kravitz and "talk to him about why he would do this."
Family members including Gaye III have reached out to lawyers to try and halt production and expressed his hope that Kravitz is pursuing the project without realizing the extent of opposition coming from the Gaye side.
"I would hope [Kravitz] doesn't have any idea that we are against this film being done," said Gaye III.
Kravitz, whose credits include Precious and more recently in The Hunger Games is taking on the role of Marvin Gaye for director Julien Temple (London: The Modern Babylon).
[Sources: Huffington Post, TMZ]
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