Sam Cooke Biopic Will Focus on Singer's Murder

A biopic with some family approval about "King of Soul" Sam Cooke's untimely death is moving forward, and it will focus on his murder.

The singer-songwriter was known for many songs, including "Twistin' the Night Away," "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Wonderful World."

In 1964, Cooke was shot by Hacienda Motel manager Bertha Franklin after, according to police reports, Cooke broke into her office. She said she shot him in self-defense. This has been disputed by Cooke's family for many years. Also earlier that night, a different woman called the police to say she had almost been kidnapped by Cooke. They believe his death was not circumstantial but instead part of a conspiracy because Cooke was fighting for black musicians's rights and against mob-connected executives.

"For years, people have been coming at us to do a movie about Sam. 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," Cooke's nephew Eugene Jamison told The Hollywood Reporter.

The film will be produced by Romeo Antonio who intends to shed some light on Cooke's death, and the biopic will be more of a murder mystery than a Walk the Line-type of film. He said he spent more than two years researching the circumstances of Cooke's death.

"When you're a gospel singer and you start singing about taking women to bed, you're a sinner," Antonio told The Wall Street Journal. "That's the demon on his back throughout the movie."

Antonio told The Wall Street Journal that he would like to cast Jon Hamm as Cooke's manager Allen Klein, who also represented The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The biopic is tenatively titled The Truth.

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