Julien Temple to direct Marvin Gaye biopic

He has already immortalised the story of the Sex Pistols on screen and handed us what many consider to be the definitive document on the life of the Clash's Joe Strummer. Now Julien Temple looks set to take on another musical legend: troubled soul singer Marvin Gaye.

According to Screen Daily, Temple's film is titled either Midnight Love, the name of Gaye's final 1982 album, or Sexual Healing, the title of the LP's stand-out single (there seems to be some confusion in the original report). The project will mark the first time that film-makers have been given official permission to bring the singer's story to the big screen, though directors such as F Gary Gray and Cameron Crowe have tried and failed in the past. Producer Jean-Luc Van Damme said it had been "a long fight" to bring the film to the production stage after five years of trying.

Crucially, Midnight Love is said to have the backing of record company EMI, which owns the rights to the songs on the album. Temple's project does not yet have a cast in place, though actors such as Oscar-nominee Terrence Howard have been attached to past iterations. Nevertheless, matters appear to be moving with some degree of speed. Midnight Love is due to shoot in Ostend, Belgium later this year.

Gaye spent much of the early 80s living in the town after quitting the US following rows with his record label Motown, and also in an effort to get off drugs. He was considered a spent force at the time, but briefly managed to get sober and stage a comeback before once again succumbing to cocaine addiction upon his return to the US.

The film will document the recording of Midnight Love in Brussels, as well as Gaye's friendship with the Belgian promoter Freddy Cousaert, who encouraged him to move to his home country and launch a comeback. It is not known whether the film will depict Gaye's eventual demise at the hands of his father, Marvin Gaye Senior, in Los Angeles in 1984. The pair had been arguing when the senior Marvin shot his son with a gun the latter had bought for him a few months earlier.