Here’s the First Footage of Andre 3000 Playing Jimi Hendrix

The most difficult thing about Andre 3000 playing Jimi Hendrix is that you’re expected to forget you’re watching Andre 3000 play Jimi Hendrix. That’s the tall task faced by the biopic All Is By My Side—which is directed by 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley and will see its premiere next week at SXSW—and it’s made even taller by the lack of actual Hendrix tunes to enjoy. His estate wasn’t comfortable with the film featuring any of the guitarist’s compositions, so instead of “Little Wing” and “Voodoo Child” the songs will be Hendrix covers, tunes originally written by Muddy Waters, the Beatles, the Troggs, and others. Not promising.

Still, Andre has the voice and quasi-British accent down. And he of course bears more than a passing resemblance to the late great fire-starter. Benjamin has proven he can act before and Hendrix’s story has surprisingly never been told on screen, so this’ll be a pretty fucking interesting movie, even if it is terrible.

[H/T: Rolling Stone]