Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Last October, we reported that Academy-award winning actor Jamie Foxx had been cast as Martin Luther King Jr. for an upcoming biopic about the slain civil right leader. The film was to be directed by Oliver Stone and was to be executive produced by the remaining King children. Well now it looks as if Stone is no longer associated with the project.
According to S&A/Indie Wire, Stone tweeted on Friday that the Warner Bros/Dreamworks film that he had written has been cancelled due to creative differences. Reportedly, producers did not want to go in the direction of Stone, whose script dealt with “issues of adultery, conflicts within the movement, and King’s spiritual transformation into a higher more radical human being.”
The sometimes controversial director went on to further explain that he was told “the estate & the ‘respectable’ black community that guard King’s reputation won’t approve it. They suffocate the man & the truth.” It is also being said that the studios did not want the film to appear to be a ‘smear campaign’ according to the UK Daily Mail.
Stone also said that “I wish you could see the film I would’ve made. I fear if ‘they’ ever make it, it’ll be just another commemoration of the March on Washington. Martin, I grieve for you. You are still a great inspiration for your fellow Americans—but, thank God, not a saint.”
Reportedly, Foxx will continue with the film that will chronicle King’s rise to prominence as civil rights leader and orator all the way to his assassination in 1968.
As previously reported the untitled film was just one of several “King” projects that are supposedly in the works including Selma which stars Butler actor David Oyelowo as King and is being directed by Ava DuVernay.
RC will keep you posted as the story continues to develop.
Photo Source: commeaucinema.com
