Fresh off an Oscar win for “12 Year’s A Slave”, John Ridley is set to premiere his next film at this year’s SXSW Music and Film Festival in Austin, Texas. The film, stars Andre Benjamin aka Andre 3000 (Outkast) as the legendary, left-handed guitar guru, Jimi Hendrix. It follows Jimi’s life from his early years to his iconic breakout performance at the Monterrey Pop Festival where he famously lit his guitar on fire. To prepare for the role, Andre 3000 took grueling 6 hour guitar lessons for weeks, however, teaching Andre to play to convincingly play guitar well enough to pull off the performance was not the hardest obstacle producers of the film faced. The estate of Jimi Hendrix has denied rights to use any of Jimi’s original music for the film, so you will not hear classics like Purple Haze, Hey Joe or Foxy Lady. Musical features will, however, include original music created for the movie and covers of tunes by Muddy Waters, The Beatles and The Rolling Stone. Can this film be successful without Hendrix’s original works? Early reactions were lukewarm at the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Look for a summer 2014 release in the United States.
