Musical genius Sam Cooke elevated soul music to the level of art after he traded in gospel for secular music and became one of the most successful songwriters and singers alive, with hits that included “Wonderful World” and “Twisting The Night Away.” Cooke was strikingly handsome, with a heavenly voice, but his personal life was, like many musicians of the time (and before, and since), messy and chaotic; when Cooke stopped performing gospel, his personal habits got a whole lot less churchy as well. 

Even by pop-star standards, Sam Cooke died a particularly horrifying death. He died at 33 in a motel room in Southern Los Angeles, but the circumstances have long been shrouded in mystery, conjecture, and doubt.

Now, Cooke’s dramatic life and even more dramatic death will be brought to the big screen via a biopic from music and film producer Romeo Antonio that doubles as a murder mystery and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, will draw upon new information that casts Cooke’s death in a different light. Family members L.C. Cooke and Eugene Jamison will act as consultants on what is being described as an authorized biopic; the two told THR they were excited about working with Antonio on the project, in large part because he shares with them the belief that Cooke was the victim of a conspiracy, killed because of his fight for black artists’ rights. “For years, people have becoming [sic] at us to do a movie about Sam,” Jamison told THR. “But he was the first person who sounded like he wanted what we wanted: the truth to come out about my uncle and his death.”

Antonio brings some interesting and unusual background to the project; he was a police officer before moving into film and television, so it’s understandable the true-crime/murder-mystery element of Cooke's story would interest him as much as Cooke’s status as a musical pioneer and icon.