Di Caprio To Play Sam Phillips

Paramount Pictures has acquired the Peter Guralnick book Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll. The film will be developed by Appian Way’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson for DiCaprio to play the title character, the pioneering music producer who from the tiny Memphis-based Sun Studio helped make stars of artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Ike Turner, Howlin’ Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, a force for integration in the 1950s who changed music forever.
DiCaprio and Davisson will be among an array of producers that will include Mick Jagger, Victoria Pearman, Steve Bing, Ian Montone, Rick Yorn and Guralnick, whose book was published by Little Brown in 2015 and who previously authored the definitive Presley books Last Train To Memphis and Careless Love.
Jagger most recently was executive producer of HBO’s Vinyl, the high-profile, big-budget series that was canceled after one season. The iconic rocker was invaluable in forming that series though and is looked to be a similar asset to the story of Phillips’ iconic Sun Studio.