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Martin Luther King Film ‘Memphis’ Coming Back Around For Paul Greengrass And Scott Rudin

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday November 16, 2012 @ 3:39pm PSTTags: Big Deals Film, Martin Luther King, Memphis, Paul Greengrass, Scott Rudin, Wild Bunch
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE… UPDATE: Memphis, Paul Greengrass‘ film about the final days of Dr. Martin Luther King, is coming back around. Now, I hear that steps are underway to make Memphis Greengrass’ next directorial outing. I’ve heard that Veritas is in talks to finance with Wild Bunch. You might recall the picture was shelved after Universal Pictures dropped out, and Greengrass and producer Scott Rudin shelved it because it became too difficult to set up new financing and shoot the film so that it could be released during the MLK weekend holiday. Greengrass and Rudin moved on to make Captain Phillips, the Sony drama about the Somali pirate heist that stars Tom Hanks as Captain Richard Phillips.

Related: Opposition To MLK Films Reveals Hard Truths About Biopic Biz

The script depicts Dr. King’s final days as he struggled to organize a protest march on behalf of striking black municipal sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was slain. That storyline is juxtaposed with an intense manhunt for King’s assassin James Earl Ray, involving some of the federal authorities who, at Hoover’s direction, had dogged King’s every step with wiretaps and whispering campaigns before the civil rights leader’s death. READ MORE »

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Opposition To Martin Luther King Films Reveals Hard Truths About Biopic Biz

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday April 4, 2011 @ 6:53pm PDTTags: Andrew Young, Lee Daniels, Martin Luther King, Paul Greengrass, Scott Rudin
Mike Fleming

Few Hollywood films are as difficult to mount as the biopics of historical figures. From The Hurricane to Malcolm X, A Beautiful Mind to Munich, The Social Network to even the most recent Best Picture Oscar winner The King’s Speech, there … Read More »

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DreamWorks Enters WikiLeaks Movie Sweepstakes, Buying Two Major Books

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday March 1, 2011 @ 5:25pm PSTTags: Aaron Sorkin, Alex Gibney, Ben Mezrich, Bill Keller, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, David Leigh, Facebook, Holly Bario, Jesse Eisenberg, Julian Assange, Luke Harding, Marc Shmuger, Mark Boal, Mark Sourian, Mark Zuckerberg, Martin Luther King, Megan Ellison, Movie Deals, Movies, Paul Greengrass, Raffi Khatchadourian, Scott Rudin, Stacey Snider, Steven Spielberg, The Guardian, The Social Network, Wikileaks
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: DreamWorks has officially entered the derby to turn the story of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks into a feature film. The studio has acquired rights to two books by pivotal players in the WikiLeaks drama. DreamWorks has secured screen rights … Read More »

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Universal Steps Up For Paul Greengrass On Martin Luther King Drama ‘Memphis’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday February 23, 2011 @ 11:28am PSTTags: Martin Luther King, Memphis, Paul Greengrass, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures will make Memphis, the drama about the assassination of Martin Luther King written and directed by Paul Greengrass. The picture is being produced by Scott Rudin, the Oscar-nominated producer of Best Picture candidates The Social Network and … Read More »

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