Actor Don Cheadle had no idea he had been tapped to play Miles Davis in a planned biopic when the jazz legend's nephew first broke the news in 2006.

The Ocean's Eleven star reveals he had settled in to watch the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions on Tv when he heard his name being linked to a project he had no knowledge of.

He recalls, "I was watching Tv and Miles Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, and his nephew was being interviewed and they asked him if there was ever gonna be a movie about (Davis') life, and he said, 'Yeah, Don Cheadle's gonna play him', which was news to me! So the next day, the (media) calls started coming in about the movie and I said, 'I have no idea what you're talking about.'"

However, the unexpected news piqued Cheadle's interest and he decided to start writing a screenplay for the proposed movie, which won the approval of Davis' family.

The film stalled for several years due to financial problems, so Cheadle decided to direct the biopic himself and took charge of the investment issues in June (14) by launching a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.com.

The fundraiser was a huge success, raising more than his $325,000 (£203,125) target, enabling production to finally get underway last year (14).

Now Cheadle is hoping to land a distribution deal for Miles Ahead to release the film by the end of 2015.

He quips, "Eight years later, we finally made a movie."

Miles Ahead also features Ewan MCGregor as Rolling Stone journalist Dave Braden and Zoe Saldana as Davis' wife Frances.

Davis died in 1991 at the age of 65.