PAT H. BROPHE
SAMMY DAVIS JR. never could stay away from the limelight. Seventeen years after he died of throat cancer, Davis - vaudevillian, singer, actor, Rat Packer - is once again getting the entertainment world's love he always craved. Four Davis projects are, in the works, involving the likes of Denzel Wahington, and André 3000, of the hip hop duo OutKast. Hollywood's interest, piqued by recent biographies and the resurgence in Rat Pack nostalgia, includes two traditional biopics, an account of his romance with the blond Actress Kim Novak and a feature documentary.
Davis's life holds obvious attractions for filmakers. Beyond the drug problems and his love-affairs, he offers a vehicle to consider an American obsession: race. But Hollywood history does not bode well for multiple movies about the same subject coming out around the same time, especially when biopics are involved,
Davis, born in 1925 to an African-American father and a mother who alternately referred to herself as Cuban and Puerto Rican, was taken on the vaudeville circuit by Sam Sr. as a toddler. As on adult, Davis sang, danced, played instruments and did comedy, and impressions. His workaholic,ways and a ,persistence to excel drove him throughout his career.
"He Was born to be unimportant," said Burt. Boyar, who with his wife, Jane, were co-authors of Davis's autobiography, "Yes, I Can:" "Born to be an outsider. He was little. He was black: He; was poor. He was uneducated. He was just the kind of kid that gets swept under the carpet in every big city in America. But Sammy had this
amazing desire, this push, this thing that made him want to be somebody.
Davis's desire for fame was complemented, and complicated, by his tendency to ignore. color lines during the 1950s and 1960s. Because he had white friends and converted to Judaism while recuperating from the 1954 car-crash that took his left eye, he was accused of having been whitewashed, Blacks were especially enraged when he hugged President Richard M. Nixon at the 1972 Republican National Convention. He crossed a major racial barrier with his 1960 marriage to the Swedish, actress May Britt, at a time when more than 30 states banned unions between whites and nonwhites.
This history has attracted biographers, and now Hollywood. "In Black and White: The Life, of Sammy Davis Jr.;" by Wil Haygod, a Washington Post staff writer, earned critical raves when it was published in 2003, and caught the attention of Mr. Washington, who, brought it to the producer Brian Grazer. "I love Horatio Alger-type -stories, and this was on of them," said Mr. Grazer, whose Imagine Entertainment is developing the film with Universal Pictures. Mr. Washington is expected to direct
Mr. Haygood, who is black, and who has completed a first draft of the script, told the story of Mr. Davis's life and career climb through the prism of cultural and social change. But what generated attention for his was the contention that Mr. Davis really wanted to be white.
That claim has infuriated Davis's African-American Widow, Altovise Davis. "Sammy never said anything like that," she said. "I think I should know: I Was married to him for 20 years" Mrs. Davis also takes umbrage with the Haygood book because it did not have the blessing of the Davis estate, of which she is sole owner. "How can someone claim to tell Sammy's story if they didn't even know him?"
Mrs. Davis is championing a biopic of her own based on "Yes, I Can." Published in 1965, the book was a huge best seller. After several false starts over the years the producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (whose credits include the movie "Chicago" and the coming "Hairspray") and New Line Cinema are finalizing negotiations with the Davis estate: (The producers will also use Davis's 1989 follow-up, "Why Me?" to flesh out his life.)
A feature documentary based of "Yes, I Can" is also in preproduction. It will draw on 150 taped hours of interviews with Davis, conducted in the mid-1980s by Mr. Boyar and his wife, who has since died.
As for the Novak affair, Earle Sebastian, a director of videos for artists including Madonna. and Tom Amos, is teamed with the music industry entrepreneur Damon Dash, on, "Sammy and Kim." Davis's romance with Ms. Novak in. the 1950s.threatened to derail both their careers. It was, such a scandal that Harry Cohn, the president, of Columbia Pictures, to which Ms. Novak was under contract, ordered the relationship ended.
"It was a reminder of what the risks were," said Sate Kashne , who detailed the relationship for Vanity Fair and is working with his wife, Nancy Schoenbergg on the screenplay. André 3000 (also known as André Benjamin), whose film credits include "Idlewild" and "Be Cool," is expected to play Davis, and Mr. Sebastian plans to direct.
The respectful attention showered on Davis is a far cry from how he was viewed In the last years of his life, when he crushed talk shows with his ever-present cigarette, hitter patter and clanking gold pendants. The revival of the famous Sinatra-led Rat Pack - in CDs, books and movies (including the resurrection of the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise) has been pivotal to the rediscovery of Davis. But whether nostalgia is enough to support all these projects is a dicey proposition. The filmed life of Truman Capote offers a recent cautionary lesson. "Capote," with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the Oscar winning title role, beat "Infamous" to the screen. "Capote" made more than $28 million domestically; "Infamous" barely cracked $1 million.
Chad Hartigan, a box office analyst with Exhibito Relations, added that “a studio might be less likely to go ahead with their biopic if a competing biopic beats them into production." He cited Oliver Stone's "Alexander," which effectively killed off a Baz Luhrmann, project about Alexander the Great.
But with an optimism Davis would have admired, Mr. Grazer shrugged off the need for speed. "it's important to befirst," he said, "but it's more important to be best."
Mr Boyar was more circumspect. "It's a horse race," he said.
Da The New York Times, 3 Giugno 2007
