Leslie Odom Jr. is heading into territory far darker than Burr vs. Hamilton.
According to Deadline, the Tony-, Grammy-, and multi-Oscar-nominated performer is developing a horror film based on Rolling Stone’s August 2024 feature “Dance With the Devil,” written by Alex Bhattacharji.
Odom has acquired the screen rights and will also star, teaming with Rolling Stone Films to bring one of Hollywood’s strangest true stories to the big screen.
At the center of the project is Sammy Davis Jr.’s unlikely and long-running link to Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan—a connection that began with a TV pilot and evolved into a 20-year relationship that Davis later tried to erase from his own legacy.
The film traces how a lighthearted network comedy called Poor Devil opened the door to a friendship between the legendary entertainer and the high priest of one of America’s most controversial religions.
Bhattacharji described the original article as “a sensitive story about a profoundly alienated Davis and his search for acceptance,” adding that it “touches on complex, timely issues: racial and sexual identity, politics, religion, pop culture, and the counter-culture.”
That tone fits the arc of Davis’ real-life experiences: a man adored onstage yet pushed to the margins off it, navigating colorism, ostracization, political backlash, and an industry that often wanted his talent but not his full humanity.
The Rolling Stone article recounts how Davis first embraced the concept of Poor Devil, a 1972 NBC pilot that reimagined hell as a corporate office. Playing a low-level demon eager to earn a promotion, Davis leaned into the role—adding horn-hand signs, a painted red fingernail, and his own custom wardrobe.
What the cast didn’t know was that Davis had already attended a ritual ceremony years earlier and was fascinated by LaVey’s philosophy of indulgence and judgment-free acceptance.
When Poor Devil aired in 1973 and featured a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Church of Satan, LaVey’s inner circle took notice. What followed was a correspondence that led to Davis becoming an honorary warlock—and eventually, a two-decade connection marked by private gatherings, philosophical conversations, and a deeply personal search for belonging at a time when Davis was being rejected from nearly every direction.
Odom’s adaptation will follow this arc closely, weaving Davis’ career struggles, political controversies, and personal contradictions into the larger narrative. The actor arrives at the project fresh off his final performance as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, a return that pushed the Broadway blockbuster to its biggest weekly gross in a decade. His screen résumé already includes roles in One Night in Miami…, Glass Onion, The Many Saints of Newark, and The Exorcist: Believer.