The former Law & Order star has been attached to Sexual Healing since 2008, when he signed on to help The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini bring the tragic singer’s life story, adapted from Steven Turner’s book Trouble Man, to the big screen.
Controversial director Julien Temple took charge of the movie in February (11), taking over from previous filmmakers Cameron Crowe and F. Gary Gray, but the project has been hit by a series of problems and delays due to difficulties clearing the rights to Gaye’s music.
And Martin admits he’s no longer holding out for the role.
He tells WENN, “(Making the film is) impossible. It’s just not… I don’t know (if it’ll happen). I mean, I just sort of threw that one up to the universe and said, ‘If it’s meant to be, it’ll be’, but it seems impossible to put together, it really does. It just hasn’t happened.”
Sexual Healing is just one of several Gaye biopics in the works, but Martin insists all of the films have faced the same licensing issues and he’s now contemplating other ways to tell the story.
He says, “There’s five or six (other Gaye projects) in the works. I actually feel less pressure. There’s so many stories out there trying to happen that it just seems like it might be impossible. Nobody’s done it yet. We haven’t done it, nobody else has either, so there seems to be a reason you haven’t seen that story on the big screen yet. I don’t know what it is, but we’re gonna have to change tactics and do it on stage, or something like that. That would actually be a great idea! So we’ll see, we’ll see.”
