Friday, January 17, 2014

Oliver Stone Departs Spielberg-Produced MLK Biopic

Today, director Oliver Stone announced via his Twitter feed that he's no longer involved in an Untitled Biopic about Martin Luther King, Jr. due to creative differences with the producers.
Stone was primed to make a warts-and-all biopic, while the producers want a film that paints a more flattering portrait of the slain Civil Rights leader:

"Sad news. My MLK project involvement has ended. I did an extensive rewrite of the script, but the producers won't go with it. The script dealt with issues of adultery, conflicts within the movement, and King's spiritual transformation into a higher, more radical being I'm told the estate and the 'respectable' black community that guard King's reputation won't approve it. They suffocate the man and the truth. I wish you could see the film I would've made. I fear if 'they' ever make it, it'll be just another commemoration of the March on Washington. Martin, I grieve for you. You are still a great inspiration for your fellow Americans - but, thank God, not a saint."


Stone was set to make the film with his Any Given Sunday star Jamie Foxx. It is unknown if Foxx is still attached to star

DreamWorks Studios acquired the life rights of the civil rights leader in May 2009 including access to King's intellectual property and the cooperation of the King estate

Warner Bros. had been working on its biopic for several years and had been in deep development on a script with Kario Salem, who had done almost four years worth of research and interviews when writing his screenplay.

The film would follow MLKj from his rise all the way to his assassination in 1968.

Steven Spielberg, Suzanne De Passe, Madison Jones and Samuel Nappi are producing.

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