Comedian Chris Rock is likely to direct a film on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Rock is in final talks to direct and produce the project, with Steven Spielberg on board as executive producer, Variety reported. Universal Pictures has optioned the rights to adapt Jonathan Eig's critically acclaimed biography King: A Life.
Eig’s book has been called the definitive biography of the late civil rights icon. As per the publication, it uses new FBI information and hundreds of interviews to paint a portrayal of King as a “courageous but emotionally troubled individual who demanded peaceful protest while grappling with his own frailties and a government that hunted him.”
The untitled movie will be produced by Amblin Partners, with Kristie Macosko Krieger serving as producer, and Spielberg as executive producer. Rock, a four-time Emmy and three-time Grammy winner, previously directed 2014's Top Five, 2003's Head of State and 2007's I Think I Love My Wife'. In the coming months, he will be seen in director George C. Wolfe's Rustin, starring Colman Domingo as the civil rights activist.
Earlier this year, he debuted his Netflix live stand-up special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, which was widely viewed because it was one of the first times he spoke publicly about getting slapped on stage at the Oscars by Will Smith.
