The Miles Davis Movie: A few words about magazines

Safe to say most general movie magazines will have something in the way of a feature (big or small) about the Miles Davis movie; Entertainment Weekly, Fade In and Empire fit the bill here.

Then there are trade titles like Creative Screenwriting, Film Comment and Filmmaker who will most likely take a deeper look into the dynamics of the movie.

I am already assuming jazz magazines like Downbeat and Jazz Times will be all over the Miles Davis biopic.

The same goes for Rolling Stone.

But it’s the high-profile fashion titles like Vanity Fair, GQ and Esquire where the Miles Davis movie might also find some traction.

All three have a long history of spotlighting (and hyping) forthcoming films with glossy fashion spreads and innocuous interviews with the corresponding talent.

Usually Vanity Fair dispatches a photographer to the set of a soon-to-be released movie (most likely one perched high atop the buzz meter), and eventually we see a slick pictorial to wet the appetite; usually its images of the actors in costume, behind the scenes shots and a brief write-up of what moviegoers can look forward to.

It’s all quite harmless and enjoyable, and definitely adds to the anticipation.

The Miles Davis biopic is perfect for this type of pictorial and should be right in Vanity Fair’s wheelhouse.

As the movie gains attention in across the media landscape and on the ‘Net, I think there’s going to be a lot of emphasis on Don Cheadle-as-Miles Davis, so expect to see a lot of images of the actor ‘in character.’

Anyway, it just sets itself up for Vanity Fair magic.

As for Esquire and GQ, the male-centric fashion titles, Miles Davis has appeared many times over the years in articles and features about style (and music, I imagine), so he’s a subject certainly not new to their pages.

Might we see Don Cheadle on the cover in the future? I say yes.

This is just the sort of role that gets you the cover.

Plus, there will be Oscar buzz and all kinds of hype, so the marketing machine will be in overdrive. I’ll have more on the marketing situation, including the importance of the Internet.

On the flip side of the legendary music career, Miles Davis was about style, opinion and affecting culture. Miles Davis and American Culture is a terrific book detailing the jazz giant and his influence on American culture.

That said, it makes perfect sense for erudite periodicals such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic to catch the Miles Davis fever and work up essays about Davis’ impact on culture, music, etc.

Lord knows there are a ton of magazines on the newsstands and many of which might soon be upping their coverage of Miles Davis and the biopic. Hey, I have a great issue of of Fader from ‘05 with Miles on the cover — and it looks cool!

I hope the Miles Davis movie gets as much coverage in the media as possible without being too annoying; there is such a thing as overkill (hello “Sex and the City”).

I sense a Miles Davis resurrection – though he hasn’t really been forgotten at all – and with that a media blitz that will include all the big magazines, websites and other media outlets. There’s a lot that is ‘cool’ about Miles Davis. And if something is cool these days it usually ends up on a slick cover somewhere.

The Miles Davis movie is like a gathering media storm. This should be fun….