Leslie Odom Jr. Tackles Sammy Davis Jr.’s Wild Satanic Adventure On Screen
Hollywood history is full of odd celebrity connections. Some are harmless, like that time Nicolas Cage bought a haunted Victorian mansion, or when Marlon Brando became best friends with Michael Jackson. And then there is Sammy Davis Jr. casually hanging out with Anton LaVey and becoming an honorary member of the Church of Satan. Yes, you read that correctly. And now this wonderfully bizarre chapter of entertainment history is becoming a feature film, with Leslie Odom Jr. adapting the story and playing Sammy himself.
According to Deadline, the project is based on an incredible Rolling Stone article by Alex Bhattacharji titled Dance With the Devil, published in August 2024. Bhattacharji described the piece as a sensitive examination of Sammy Davis Jr. and his complicated life during a period when he felt deeply alienated. The article explores subjects ranging from race, sexuality and politics to pop culture, religion and counter culture, all through the lens of Sammy’s unlikely connection to LaVey’s organisation. It is the kind of story you read with your jaw hanging open while wondering why on earth this has not already been turned into a movie.
The roots of this connection go back to 1972 when Sammy Davis Jr. was shooting a pilot for a potential NBC comedy series called Poor Devil. The premise sounds like something you would pitch at two in the morning after too much brandy. Sammy played a low ranking demon who had spent centuries shovelling coal in the underworld and was desperate for a promotion. The Devil, played by none other than Christopher Lee, offered him a chance to earn his place by persuading a mortal man, played by Jack Klugman, to sign away his soul. It is a sort of workplace comedy for the damned. The series never went forward, but the pilot aired as a television movie the following year.
Enter Anton LaVey, the famously theatrical founder of the Church of Satan. Members of the Church saw the broadcast of Poor Devil and thought it was fantastic publicity. They suggested that Sammy Davis Jr. be invited to become an honorary warlock. Less than a month later, Sammy replied with the sort of charming enthusiasm that made him one of the greatest entertainers of his era. He said he was delighted to accept the membership, was relieved that no one had been offended by Poor Devil, and even proposed a place and date where they could present the award while he was performing in Las Vegas.
What makes the story even wilder is that this may not have been Sammy’s first brush with LaVey’s circle. In his 1989 autobiography he described attending a ritual in the Hollywood Hills years earlier, one that apparently ended in a drug fuelled orgy. Imagine flipping through a book about one of the greatest singers of all time and stumbling onto a sentence like that. It is no wonder Rolling Stone considered the whole saga a gold mine.
And now Leslie Odom Jr. gets to bring this unbelievable chapter of entertainment history to the screen. Odom Jr. knows a thing or two about dark forces in cinema, having starred in The Exorcist Believer. That film was meant to launch a brand new trilogy before the studio realised the audience had collectively voted no. Plans changed, David Gordon Green stepped aside, and Mike Flanagan was hired to completely rethink the franchise. Scarlett Johansson will lead his new take, which tells you everything about the level of trust studios place in Flanagan when they hand him a classic horror property they desperately want to resurrect.
Odom Jr. stepping from Exorcist mayhem into a tale about Sammy Davis Jr. and the most flamboyant occultist of the twentieth century feels like the sort of career decision that will lead to a truly fascinating film. The Sammy Davis Jr. story has drama, comedy, counter culture chaos and a genuinely heartfelt exploration of a lonely man looking for acceptance in places he never expected to find it.
If the finished movie captures even a fraction of the strangeness and depth found in Bhattacharji’s article, it could become one of the most compelling biographical films of the decade. For now, all we can do is wait while Leslie Odom Jr. sharpens his script, tunes his vocal cords, and prepares to dance with the devil in the most literal way possible.
