This Friday sees the release of Soul Men, the Bernie Mac–and–Samuel L. Jackson–starring comedy from the Weinstein Company about a pair of retired backup singers who end a twenty-year feud and agree to play a reunion concert after the death of their former lead singer (played, somehow, by John Legend). It’s hard to imagine anyone not being completely delighted by this news, but we guess there’s always somebody. Sam Moore — the surviving half of the legendary soul duo Sam & Dave, the guys who originally made “Soul Man†a hit — is alleging the movie “gives a defamatory account†of an ill-fated reunion that he and Dave Prater had in 1982, after they’d not spoken in four years. “It’s so amateurish, so stupid, and I’m surprised that Samuel L Jackson is involved in this,†says Moore, who apparently has not seen any of Jackson’s last 37 films. “They have bastardized my whole story.â€
The movie’s soundtrack includes one of Moore’s songs, and Jackson and Mac’s characters even work with the late Isaac Hayes, who produced and wrote for Sam & Dave in the sixties (he’s responsible for “Soul Manâ€). But according to a lawyer for the Weinstein Company, Soul Men “tells a different story about different people,†and if Moore files a lawsuit, “he will lose,†presumably because Weinstein Co. probably can’t afford to pay him much even if he wins.
’Soul men’ film is no laughing matter for Sam & Dave star [Independent via /Film]