Colman Domingo is spending his Oscars clout on a Nat King Cole biopic

The Rustin star will also play Michael Jackson's dad, Joe Jackson, in an upcoming biopic from Antoine Fuqua

By William Hughes | January 26, 2024 | 12:28am

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Colman Domingo is spending his Oscars clout on a Nat King Cole biopic

Colman Domingo Photo: Michael Loccisano

If anyone ever tries to tell you that the Oscars don’t matter, one easy way to swiftly correct them is to point to the trades in the days after the nominations for The Big Show roll out—when actors who were putting in their time, often for years, start seriously reaping the rewards. Earlier today, we reported that freshly minted nominee Lily Gladstone—honored for her mesmerizing breakout performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon—had already lined up her next project. Now Rustin star Colman Domingo is getting ready to make the most of his new Oscars clout, too: Domingo has just signed on to star as Michael Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, in an upcoming biopic of Jackson—and is set to make his feature directorial debut in a personal passion project, playing Nat King Cole in a biopic of the famed singer’s life.

Now, given that he’s already holding on to the “E” in some future prospective EGOT, courtesy of his performance on HBO’s Euphoria (plus a couple of nominations for the T, to boot), it’s not like Domingo is some dewy-eyed newcomer to the industry. But his Best Actor nomination Rustin has almost certainly improved his ability to get projects like this made, in this case from a script he co-wrote, and which he intends to both direct and star in. (No word yet on which studio will end up taking on the project; as noted by Variety, this is the second time Domingo has tackled the “Unforgettable” singer’s life, having previously co-written a play, Lights Out: Nat ‘King’ Cole, that imagined the singer’s mindset in a key moment in 1957.)