Ray Charles’ Life to Get the Hollywood Treatment

Hollywood has rock ‘n’ roll fever.

Tinseltown has already made “The Buddy Holly Story,” immortalized the King (“This Is Elvis”), documented Chuck Berry’s life (“Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll”) and rediscovered Richie Valens (“La Bamba”). This summer Orion Pictures will celebrate The Killer, with Dennis Quaid starring as Jerry Lee Lewis in “Great Balls of Fire.”

Who’s next? A few hints: He’s black. He’s blind. He’s a dynamic keyboardist and sensual singer who’s had dozens of Top 40 hits.

If you guessed Stevie Wonder, you’re . . . wrong.

It’s none other than Ray Charles. The R&B; legend’s life and music will be dramatized in “The Ray Charles Story,” a just-announced film project being produced by rock managers Mark Hartley and Larry Fitzgerald. The film is the first project due from New Visions Pictures, a new production company headed by Taylor Hackford, who says his production slate will offer “at least one” music biography each year. (New Visions has acquired the rights to the life of Linda Creed, an influential ‘70s-era black songwriter.)

“I wanted our first New Visions picture to really stand out,” explained Hackford, a pop aficionado who produced “La Bamba” and directed “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll.” “To me, Ray Charles is the greatest living figure in black music. His music is the meeting place of R&B;, rock, pop, jazz and country & Western. He’s a wonderfully complex character, a guy born into awful poverty.

“Ray struggled against unbelievable odds to become one of the major pop music icons of the last four decades. And to me, there’s something inherently dramatic about the distance one travels in American society--and Ray went all the way.”

Though Charles experienced many traumas along the way, including a period of heroin addiction, Hackford insists none of the rough spots will be smoothed over. “We’re telling the whole story-- the tragedies and the triumphs. Ray doesn’t want anything covered up.”

No writer or director has been chosen yet. But Quincy Jones--an old Charles associate--will be on board as a musical consultant. Hackford says he’s looking for several unknown actors to play Charles at various stages of his career. As for the music, Hackford says it will probably be a combination of old material and re-recordings. “I’m certainly not going to re-record Ray’s voice,” he said. “No one sounds like him--and no one ever will.”