From L: Chris Rock; Martin Luther King Jr.; Steven Spielberg.Photo:Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Bettmann Archive/Getty; Kevork Djansezian/NBC via Getty
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Bettmann Archive/Getty; Kevork Djansezian/NBC via Getty
Chris Rockis bringing the story ofMartin Luther King Jr.to life on the screen.
Kristie Macosko Krieger and Amblin Partners will co-produce alongside Rock, while Universal’s Senior Vice President of Production Development Ryan Jones will oversee, per the release.
The film will be based on Jonathan Eig’sNew York Timesbest-selling biography,King: A Life.
Released earlier this year, the book “follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, [as] Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father — as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr,” anofficial synopsis for the bookreads.
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The movie will mark the fourth time Rock has directed and the first non-comedy film, afterHead of State(2003),I Think I Love My Wife(2007) andTop Five(2014).
News of the upcoming biographical drama comes ahead of the release ofRustin, starringColman Domingoas activist Bayard Rustin, who served as one of the main organizers for the August 1963 March on Washington. It also costars Rock as activist Roy Wilkins.
A synopsis for the film — which will debut in select theaters on Nov. 3 before being available to stream onNetflixstarting Nov. 17 — calls the real-life Rustin “one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known.”
“Rustinshines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, dared to imagine a different world, and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom,” the description continues.
Chris Rock.Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
The upcoming King biopic, meanwhile, is Rock’s first helming a film project since the infamous incident at the 2022Academy AwardswhereWill Smithstruck him in the face onstage after the comedian made a joke about the nominee’s wife,Jada Pinkett Smith.
Rock, who also lends his voice to the recently releasedPAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,addressed the assaultin his live specialChris Rock: Selective Outrageback in March, asserting he “is not a victim.”
The source also said that “people have been waiting for [Rock’s] reaction for a year,” adding, “For the most part, I think it was well received. People don’t expect sugarcoating from Chris Rock.”
source: people.com
