K5 International has released a clip of Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) as jazz legend Chet Baker in the upcoming biopic Born to Be Blue. The film will have its world premiere on September 13 in the Special Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival. Hawke portrays the troubled icon at a late point in his career, attempting to mount a comeback after drugs and personal issues derailed his early success. Having been approached to star in a movie about his life, the musician’s prospects for renewed success dim when a beating in a parking lot after a performance threatens to end his music career entirely.
The clip has the trumpeter in the studio performing a soulful, almost sad version of the classic ‘Over the Rainbow’ for producers in an attempt to reestablish himself as an artist amongst his peers which include Dizzy Gillespie (Kevin Hanchard, TV’s Orphan Black) and adversary Miles Davis (Kedar Brown). Carmen Ejogo (Selma) is featured as Baker’s love interest and Callum Keith Rennie costars as his producer and manager Dick Bock.
The film is reportedly a mix of factual and fictionalized events. Writer/director Robert Budreau is familiar with his subject matter, having made the 2009 short The Deaths of Chet Baker.
Hawke, Oscar nominated for last year’s Boyhood, recently wrapped the western In the Valley of Violence. Check out his turn as Baker below:
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