Film director Oliver Stone announced that he will no longer be helming a highly anticipated biopic on the life of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. because he wasn’t allowed to show the iconic Civil Rights leader’s flaws.
Dreamworks announced last fall that they were bringing King’s life to the big screen. Jamie Foxx has been tapped to portray King and Steven Spielberg signed on to produce.
Apparently, even all that star power wasn’t enough for the family of the assassinated leader, who allegedly didn’t like the story that Stone was trying to tell.
Read Stone’s tweets below:
Sad news. My MLK project involvement has ended. I did an extensive rewrite of the script, but the producers won’t go with it.
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
The script dealt w/ issues of adultery, conflicts within the movement, and King’s spiritual transformation into a higher, more radical being
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
I’m told the estate & the ‘respectable’ black community that guard King’s reputation won’t approve it. They suffocate the man & the truth.
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
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
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
Martin, I grieve for you. You are still a great inspiration for your fellow Americans—but, thank God, not a saint.
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
The Dreamworks project, which initially had the support of the King family, is only one of the three attempts to bring King’s life to the big screen.
Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass is directing Memphis, which focuses on the end of King’s life before his 1968 assassination on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere) is breathing life into Selma, starring David Oyelowo, who played Forest Whitaker’s son in Lee Daniel’s The Butler, as King.
Oliver Stone Drops Out Of MLK Biopic, Refuses To Whitewash His Legacy was originally published on newsone.com