From American Songwriter:
In 2022, Dave Stewart sketched his early musical journey, young love, and other firsts, in the 26 songs of Ebony McQueen, which he is adapting into a film of the same.
“It’s a story of my slice of my teenage life when all I wanted to do is play soccer, but my knee was broken into several parts, and my mom had left my dad, and my dad was depressed,” shared Stewart. “My brother had gone to college, so there was an empty house.”
Shot on location in Stewart’s hometown of Sunderland, Ebony McQueen will feature a score co-written with Oscar-winning composer and producer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire, Elizabeth: The Golden Age).
Directed by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, What’s Love Got to Do With It?) and executive produced by Malcolm Gerrie, (Ibiza: The Silent Movie, Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe), Ebony McQueen will follow the script written by Stewart, along with Lorne Campbell, Selma Dimitrijevic, and Peter Souter.
Produced by Stewart along with fellow Sunderland native David Parfitt Shakespeare in Love, The Father), co-founder of Trademark Films, and David Jacobson (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, The Falconer) for Dave Stewart Entertainment, the film is in the initial stages of casting, which includes international talent from the UK, India, and the U.S.
British actress and singer Sharon D. Clarke, who previously played Oda Mae in Stewart’s 2011 Ghost: The Musical, the stage adaptation of the 1990 drama Ghost, is set to take on the starring role of McQueen, alongside Tom A. Smith, also from Sunderland, though casting is still in progress with production set to commence in 2025.
“She becomes his guide through his teenage trauma, through his anxieties in life, and helps him cope with everything,” shares Stewart of McQueen. “She remains throughout the movie, while he discovers music and discovers the girl next door, and as he discovers the possibility that there’s another life that can happen outside of a very depressed town at the time.”
Read the entire article here.
Watch the video for “Ebony McQueen” here:
