Marvin Gaye Biopic Set To Shoot In April; ‘Law & Order’ Cop To Play Lead, James Gandolfini To Co-Star & Produce

Titled “Sexual Healing,” the film will focus on the last year of the soul singer’s life and will co-star “Sopranos” actor James Gandolfini as Belgian promoter Freddy Cousaert and he’s also the producer of the film. Relatively untested director Lauren Goodman will helm the project.

Goodman wrote the script and loosely based it on the book, “Trouble Man.” The $15 million dollar production is set for principal photography in April. In 1981, Gaye took refuge in the small, tranquil town of Ostend, Belgium. There he met Cousaert who convinced Gaye to continue living abroad – an exile that lasted almost two years. Coursaret guided the singer through the recording of his biggest-selling album, Midnight Love.

In 1983, exhausted after his Love tour, the singer moved in with his parents in Los Angeles. Gaye’s father Marvin Sr. shot his son to death after a business argument on April 1, 1984, one day before his forty-fifth birthday.