One too many players in Chess game?

So when I was at the recent Toronto Film Festival, I made a point of seeing "Who Do You Love," which stars Alessandro Nivola and Jon Abrahams as Leonard and Phil Chess, two hard-nosed immigrant entrepreneurs who ended up creating Chess Records, the 1950s record label that popularized urban blues and later, with the arrival of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, ushered in a brash new form of rock 'n' roll that was adopted by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and thousands of other young white rock artists.

After the screening, I ran into a film executive, who whispered in my ear, "Do you know that there's another one?" Puzzled, I said, "Another what?" He laughed. "Another movie about Chess Records."

I really thought he was joking, but it's true. Against all odds and sound commercial judgment, the same crazy movie business that once made two asteroid movies and two movies about Truman Capote has now made two movies about the obscure icons of 1950s Chicago blues. What are the odds?

The second Chess film, made by Sony BMG Films, is "Cadillac Records," which will be released Dec. 5 through Sony's TriStar Pictures. Produced by Sofia Sondervan and Andy Lack, Sony BMG's former chairman (who just took a new job running Bloomberg's multimedia operations), the film has considerably more star power than its rival, featuring Beyoncé Knowles as Chess' top songstress, Etta James; Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess; Mos Def as Chuck Berry; and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters.

It's probably a misnomer to call the two pictures rivals, since "Who Do You Love," despite earning some good notices in Toronto, remains a long shot to land a theatrical release. "Cadillac Records" will be out in 800 theaters, with a Beyoncé single and a soundtrack to help attract attention. Still, the question remains: Why would two 1950s blues movies be made at the same time?