After campaigning to play the singer for quite some time now, Tyrese Gibson has been cast as singer Teddy Pendergrass. The project is set at Warner Bros. which acquired the singer’s life rights.

Producing the pic will be Donald De Line, Lee Daniels and Gibson. Little Marvin is the scriptwriter, and Joan Pendergrass, the widow of the late singer, will be an executive producer.

“I am honored to take this journey… this is the role that I feel I was born to play,” Gibson said. “Teddy Pendergrass embraced me and before he passed put the responsibility on my shoulders to tell his story. Being here in this time and in this space and moment with Lee Daniels, Donald De Line, Little Marvin and Warner Bros is an answered prayer. Teddy, I just hope we make you, your wife and family proud… Here we go!!”

In 1982, at 31 years old, Pendergrass was severely injured in an auto accident in Philadelphia, resulting in his being paralyzed from the chest down. He subsequently founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a foundation that helps those with spinal cord injuries. His last performance was on a PBS special at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino in November 2008. On June 5, 2009, Pendergrass underwent successful surgery for colon cancer and returned home to recover. A few weeks later he returned to the hospital with respiratory issues. After seven months, he died of respiratory failure on January 13, 2010, at age 59, with wife Joan by his side while hospitalized at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His body was interred at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Tyrese is about to wrap the feature Black & Blue with Naomie Harris and Nafessa Williams and will then shoot Fast & Furious 9. 

 

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