Jamie Foxx is certainly one of Hollywood’s favorite actors at the moment with his recent roles in DJANGO UNCHAINED, WHITE HOUSE DOWN and the upcoming THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2. The wrap has now revealed that the actor is in talks to star as Martin Luther King Jr. with Oliver Stone also in negotiations to direct.
A film based on Martin Luther King Jr. has been in development with different Hollywood studios for years, with director Paul Greengrass also in the process of making his own film chronicling the political figures life. After Dreamworks acquired the rights to Kings famous ‘I have a dream speech’ in 2009 they decided to team up with Warner Bros in 2011 who had also planned their own film based on King with three years of extensive research going into the script.
It would not come as a surprise to see Oliver Stone direct the film given his strong interest in productions based on political figures, Stone has previously directed JFK, NIXON and W. Foxx and Stone have also previously collaborated on the 1999 film ANY GIVEN SUNDAY about a fictional american football team. The currently untitled Martin Luther King Jr. biopic will be produced by Steven Spielberg, Suzanne De Passe, Madison Jones, Sam Nappi and several unknown members of the King family from a screenplay by Kario Salem.
With the King family producing the film it does lend credence to the production not to mention Steven Spielberg who has had two academy award nominations in the past two years. Everything about the project so far sounds like it has alot of potential so lets just hope everything comes together and it finally gets off the ground. We will update you with any more news on the film as it comes in so check back at The Hollywood News.
Source: The Wrap
