Leslie Odom Jr. To Adapt Rolling Stone Article About Sammy Davis Jr.’s Ties To Church Of Satan Into Horror Movie
EXCLUSIVE: Tony and Grammy Award-winning, 3x Emmy and 2x Oscar-nominated singer, songwriter, actor, Leslie Odom, Jr., is set adapt the August 2024 Rolling Stone article “Dance With the Devil” by Alex Bhattacharji. Odom will also star in the horror feature.
Odom acquired the screen rights to the article which explores Sammy Davis Jr.’s unlikely connection to Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan. The story follows what drew Davis into that world, and the overlap between the beloved entertainer and one of America’s most controversial figures. The project is also a partnership with Rolling Stone Films.
Project’s blurb reads: “How a TV pilot called Poor Devil begat a friendship between the performer, Sammy Davis Jr., and Anton Szandor LaVey, founder and high priest of the Church of Satan.”
The article is “a sensitive story about a profoundly alienated Davis and his search for acceptance,” says Bhattacharji. “It’s a rollicking ride that touches on complex, timely issues: racial and sexual identity, politics, religion, pop culture, and the counter-culture,” he adds.
The news of the Rolling Stone option comes on the heels of Odom’s final performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Hamilton which was on Nov. 26 as Aaron Burr, a role the actor originated in both Hamilton’s Off-Broadway and Broadway productions, earning a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical and a Grammy Award as a principal soloist on the Original Broadway Cast Recording.
Hamilton saw a 76% increase in weekly box office grosses upon Odom rejoining the cast. Most recently, the musical hit its highest ever gross in its ten years on Broadway during Odom’s limited engagement run.
Odom played soul singer Sam Cooke in the 2020 Amazon film adaptation of One Night in Miami…, directed by Regina King which notched him a supporting actor Oscar nomination, in addition to a Best Song nom for the tune “Speak Now”. Additional film and television credits include Rian Johnson’s record-breaking 2022 Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, for Netflix, The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to David Chase’s award-winning HBO series The Sopranos, The Exorcist: Believer for Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, Apple TV+’s Central Park, for which he earned an Emmy nomination, and many more.
Odom Jr is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman, etc.
