Ethan Hawke to star as jazz legend Chet Baker

Ethan Hawke is adding an interesting role to his filmography - he’s starring as jazz trumpeter Chet Baker in a biopic that has just started shooting in Canada.

Hawke has worked closely on the development of the project, which could put him in line for awards chatter, given how biopics tend to fare at when it comes to trophies being distributed. And Baker had quite the colourful life…

As well as being a groundbreaking musician, Baker had troubles with drug addiction, and spent time in jail. Hawke’s had a strong run of roles of late, having starred in one of 2014’s best films, Boyhood , as well as scoring recent genre hits with the likes of The Purge and Sinister .

Born To Be Blue , as it’s titled, is written and directed by Robert Budreau, and we’d expect to see it open in 2015.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.