César Chávez, it’s time for your biopic.
Screenwriter Keir Pearson and Larry Meli have optioned rights to make a biopic about civil-rights activist and labor organizer César Chávez.
The screenplay will be written by Pearson, who is producing with Meli for Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna’s Mexico-based Canana Films. The rights were granted by the César Chávez Foundation and negotiations were managed by Chávez’s son, Paul.
For those of you may not know a lot about Chávez, here’s some highlights:
“From the 1950s through 1993, when he died, Chávez worked as a community organizer and fought for improved working conditions for California farm workers. The Mexican-American co-founded the National Farm Workers Assn., which later became the United Farm Workers union, and campaigned to prevent illegal immigration from undermining unionization efforts. Chávez’s birthday, March 31, is celebrated as a state holiday in several states, including California and Texas, and he was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1994. In 2006, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger inducted him into the state’s hall of fame.
Pearson is an Oscar nominated screenwriter. He was up for an original screenplay Oscar in 2005 for co-writing HOTEL RWANDA with director Terry George.