Marvin Gaye’s son says Lenny Kravitz playing his dad would be ‘wrong and shameful’

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Lenny Kravitz announced recently that his next major role would be playing Motown legend, Marvin Gaye on the big screen.

The film will reportedly focus on Gaye’s “late career when he lived in the United Kingdom and was battling financial difficulty and alcoholism.”

Gaye’s son, however is not thrilled about the biopic and wants Lenny Kravitz to walk away from the project. Marvin Gaye III told TMZ, “The producers and directors of this film are very wrong and shameful … [They’re] trying to do a film about a low period in his life. They don’t even know the whole story.”

Marvin III, who is childhood friends with Kravitz, says he’s shocked the Hunger Games star signed on to the project because it will focus the darker side of his father’s life.

Sexual Healing, the working title of the film, will reportedly focus on Marvin’s life in the 1980s when he battled drug abuse and depression, before his father shot and killed him in 1984.

Marvin’s son says he and Kravitz were schoolmates and remain friends to this day, so he wants to “talk to him about why he would do this.”

Marvin III says he and other family members are meeting with lawyers to try to stop production.

TMZ reached out to Kravitz for comment, and so far has not received word back.

Follow Chris Witherspoon on Twitter at @WitherspoonC