In the aftermath to
Paul Greengrass' biopic of
Martin Luther King Jrcrashing down at Universal and now appearing to be indefinitely shelved,
The Hollywood Reporter say DreamWorks' two year attempt to get a movie about the civil rights activist and American icon off the ground, which importantly has the full backing of the MLK estate and protectors, is finally gathering pace. Warner Bros have come on board to co-finance and distribute the untitled project and
Kario Salem, writer of the 2001 De Niro/Norton's The Score has entered talks to scribe. It appears Salem had been working closely with WB for the past three and a half years conducting interviews and prepping tireless research into MLK but when the studio witnessed the recent failures of both Universal (Greengrass' movie about his final days) and The Weinstein Company (there's from Lee Daniels titled Selma, about the 1960 marches) when they couldn't achieve the family estate blessing for their respective projects, they seemingly did a very smart thing and offered their biopic to DreamWorks - where it appears they have each blended each others projects. DreamWorks' movie was being developed by
Ronald Harwood (Oscar winner for adapting The Pianist) but his name is not listed on this new report. The studio bought the life rights to MLK almost exactly two years ago, giving them exclusive access to King's intellectual property, including the famous "I Have A Dream" speech which no other studio could use. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk No word on what timeline the biopic will tackle (i.e. - whether it's a full blown life to death take or just focusing on one key event) but one might presume the agenda will be for a flattering movie as non-controversial as possible. Greengrass will be pissed....