With the sad passing of the legendary music icon James Brown on Christmas Day, this news is very welcome and put a smile on my face this morning. Spike Lee has annouced that he is to direct a motion picture biopic on "The Godfather of Soul" with Brian Grazer on board to produce. Grazer told this to Variety.... "Like everybody, I was surprised and saddened that James Brown died....Having known him well, and after spending lots of time with him and researching his life, it's somehow not surprising that he died on Christmas Day. He was the ultimate showman, all the way to the end." Brown had been working closely with the scriptwriters on the project during the early development stages and all the rights to his discography have been picked up to be used in the film. I told someone I know that James Brown had died on Christmas Day and he didn't have a clue who he was which saddened me somewhat. The guy had a huge impact on music in the 60's, 70's and 80's and did so much for the image of African-Americans in the States. Hopefully projects like this will help keep the name of the legend alive and introduce new generations to the story of this icon. source - variety, coming soon