Comedian and actor Chris Rock is all set to collaborate with director Steven Spielberg on a film about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. As per Variety, Chris is currently in ‘final talks to direct and produce the project’. (Also Read | Jimmy Kimmel’s slapstick take on the Will Smith and Chris Rock debacle at the 95th Academy Awards)
About the film
Spielberg will be part of the film as an executive producer. The biographical drama is being backed by Universal Pictures which has optioned the rights to adapt Jonathan Eig’s biography King: A Life. The untitled movie will be produced by Amblin Partners, with Kristie Macosko Krieger as producer, and Spielberg as executive producer. The casting of the film hasn’t been announced yet.
As per the report, Jonathan’s book has been called the “definitive biography of the late civil rights icon”. It uses new FBI information and interviews to paint a portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr as a “courageous but emotionally troubled individual who demanded peaceful protest while grappling with his own frailties and a government that hunted him”.
About Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King Jr was an activist and political philosopher. He was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
About Chris Rock
A four-time Emmy and three-time Grammy winner, Chris earlier directed Head of State (2003), Think I Love My Wife (2007), Top Five (2014). He will be seen in director George C Wolfe’s Rustin which also stars Colman Domingo as the civil rights activist. Earlier this year, he debuted his Netflix live stand-up special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage. It was widely viewed as it was one of the first times he spoke publicly about getting slapped on stage at the Oscars by Will Smith.
He started his career as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1993. In 2001, he wrote, executive produced and starred in Down to Earth (2001), and starred and produced Pootie Tang (2001). In 2003 he made his directorial debut with the political satire Head of State, followed by I Think I Love My Wife (2007), and Top Five (2014). He also starred in Death at a Funeral (2010), Grown Ups (2010), and Dolemite Is My Name (2019) among others.