MOS DEF - MOS DEF TO PLAY CHUCK BERRY IN NEW FILM ABOUT CHESS RECORDS

US rapper and actor Mos Def is to play Chuck Berry in a new film about the legendary record label Chess Records.

Cadillac Records, written and directed by Darnell Martin, is set in the 1950s and will follow the lives of Leonard Chess, the man who founded Chess Records, and some of its famous artists.

Adrien Brody will play Chess, while Jeffrey Wright plays Muddy Waters and Gabrielle Union has been cast as his girlfriend Geneva Wade.

Singer Beyonce Knowles is also on board and will play Etta James in the film.

Chess set up the record label with his younger brother Phil, after the pair travelled across the southern states of America selling records out of their Cadillac.

Mos Def recently appeared alongside Jack Black in Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind and is set to appear in William H Macy's upcoming film Keep Coming Back.

Beyonce last appeared in the 2006 Oscar-winning Dreamgirls as Deena Jones.