Paul Greengrass’ delayed Martin Luther King Jr biopic Memphis may be his next project

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The long delayed Martin Luther King Jr biopic from Paul Greengrass looks like it is back in development and may be the director’s next project.

Greengrass has not directed a film since GREEN ZONE in 2010. He was going to be making the Somali pirate movie A CAPTAIN’S DUTY, but that seems to have stalled as well. His MLK movie, MEMPHIS, was shut down at Universal a couple years ago due to pressure from the King family regarding the content of the screenplay.

According to Deadline, the King family objected to the depiction of infidelity. I read the script when Greengrass tried to make the movie last time around, and felt it was Oscar caliber stuff that was a powerful testament to King’s struggle and his sacrifice, even if he was portrayed as an imperfect human being.

If there is one thing that I hate in movies about historical figures, it is when they show them as flawless. People like Lincoln, MLK, George Washington, John F Kennedy, and George W. Bush are all made into larger than life figures. I thought Oliver Stone’s W was going to demonize Bush but actually made me feel bad for the guy. Granted, that was not exactly an unbiased portrait of a historical figure.

Much like Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, Greengrass’ MEMPHIS would focus on the final part of King’s life. The story 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.

I am very intrigued to see how this project will go. No word on when shooting will begin, but likely sometime in 2013.