Art & Leisure (The Week)-- Almost 50 years after Martin Luther King Jr. “told the world that he had a dream,” said Guy Adams in The Independent, the slain civil rights leader is set to “receive perhaps the ultimate recognition of his standing as a modern American icon: a Steven Spielberg film chronicling his life and times.” Now that DreamWorks has acquired the rights to Kings speeches and other intellectual property, King should finally get his due.Spielberg told Variety, "We are all honored that the King Estate is giving us the opportunity to tell the story of these defining, historic events. It is our hope that the creative power of film and the impact of Dr. King's life can combine to present a story of undeniable power that we can all be proud of."
There is one slight problem, really, Hollywood has a limited number of actors who would conceivably take on the role-- Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, and possibly.... Don Cheadle maybe? But then maybe there is the hope that they'll maybe give a newcomer a shot, a theater actor or someone who has the 'galls' to put in his heart and soul. This would be the role of a lifetime for any actor, but for it to work, he's got to be absolutely perfect for the part.
And even now the dream of seeing King's life story on the big screen could be "shattered," said Tatiana Siegel in Variety. Two of King's children are "threatening legal action,” claiming that Spielberg and Dreamworks don’t have permission for the project from the King Estate. So it remains to be seen if the “first-ever narrative feature” about King will hit theaters.
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