Chris Rock brings the story of Martin Luther King Jr. to life.
Teaming up with executive producer Steven Spielberg, Rock, 58, is in final talks to direct and produce a biopic about the late civil rights activist for Universal Pictures, according to a release obtained by PEOPLE.
Kristie Macosko Krieger and Amblin Partners will co-produce alongside Rock, while Universal’s senior vice president of production development Ryan Jones will oversee, according to the release.
The film will be based on Jonathan Eigo’s film The New York Times best selling biography, King: Life.
Published earlier this year, the book “follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma and Memphis, [as] Eig dramatically recreates the journey of the man who reshaped American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father — as well as the nation’s most lamented martyr,” reads the book’s official synopsis.
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King: Life Jonathan Eig (2023).
MacMillan’s books
Actors who played Martin Luther King Jr.
The film will mark the fourth time Rock has directed and the first non-comedy film Head of state (2003), I think I love my wife (2007) and Top five (2014).
News about the upcoming biographical drama comes ahead of its release Rustinstarring Colman Domingo as activist Bayard Rustin, who was one of the main organizers of the March on Washington in August 1963. It also stars Rock as activist Roy Wilkins.
The synopsis for the film — which will debut in select theaters on Nov. 3 before being available to watch on Netflix starting Nov. 17 — calls the real-life Rustin “one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known.”
“Rustin shines a long overdue light on an extraordinary man who, along with giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Elle Baker, dared to imagine a different world and inspired a movement to march toward freedom,” the description continues.
Rustin directed by George C. Wolfe and written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are executive producers, and in addition to Domingo and Rock, the cast also includes Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts and Audra McDonald.
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Chris Rock. Gregg DeGuire/WireImage Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. with 15 of his most powerful quotes
Meanwhile, the upcoming King biopic is Rock’s first leading film project since the infamous incident at the 2022 Oscars when Will Smith punched 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 released PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movieaddressed the attack in his live special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage back in March, asserting that he was “not a victim”.
After the show, an industry source told PEOPLE that Rock was “riding high,” adding, “He said what he had to say and he doesn’t care about the backlash either way. He’s not worried.”
The source also said that “people have been waiting [Rock’s] reaction to a year,” adding, “For the most part, I think it’s been well received. People don’t expect sugarcoating from Chris Rock.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education