Christopher Walken Gets Jazzy With Lenny Kravitz

Whether Christopher Walken is lighting up The Deer Hunter, dancing for Fatboy Slim or just prepping a chicken{ =nofollow}, you can pretty much count us in. His musical gifts are well-known and well-loved too, and lately they have parlayed more and more into big screen roles. He was terrific in Yaron Zilberman's A Late Quartet, has a part lined up in Clint Eastwood's take on the **Jersey Boys **musical and, reports Deadline, will be appearing next in Dan Algrant's jazz flick** Little Rootie Tootie**.

Walken will take the role of jazz pianist Sonny in a film named after piano great Thelonius Monk's track. Mourning the death of his wife, his increasingly volatile behaviour prompts his son, another successful jazz man played by Lenny Kravitz, to fly back from Europe with his wife and head him off before he self-destructs altogether.

According to Deadline: "The trio tries to present the illusion of a functioning family, as the eccentricities inherent in being working musicians leads them tumbling toward a tragic but impactful conclusion."

Writer / director Algrant, the man behind last year's musical biopic Greetings From Tim Buckley, will be overseeing things when Little Rootie Tootie's shoot kicks off in January against a wintry New York backdrop. Should be a worthy vehicle for Walken's gifts.