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Here’s your first look (pictured above) at Chadwick Boseman incarnating James Brown for the upcoming Universal Pictures’ biopic titled Get on Up, directed by The Help‘s Tate Taylor and produced by Brian Grazer and Mick Jagger.

Universal has moved up the release date of its James Brown biopic to August 1, 2014, taking over the slot previously reserved for its 50 Shades Of Grey film adaptation. Get On Up will compete with Disney’s wide release of its adaptation of Guardians of the Galaxy on that August release weekend. 

Get on Up, which promises a “warts and all” telling of Brown’s life story on film, boasts an impressive cast which includes Jill Scott (one of Brown’s wives), Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis (Brown’s mom), Octavia Spencer (Brown’s aunt),  Lennie James (Brown’s father), Nelsan Ellis (Bobby Byrd), Tikka Sumpter (Yvonne Fair) and Keith Robinson.

Get on Up was penned by Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth, who wrote the script for Fair Game, which starred Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

So far, I’m pleasantly surprised at the transformation, since some of us could hardly imagine Boseman in the lead role. It’s only a first look however; we’re definitely even more curious and really looking forward to seeing more, especially Boseman actually gettin’ on up, from the ground up.