Martin Luther King Jr. biopic headed to big screen

Paul Winfield portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in a 1978 mini-series on NBC
Paul Winfield portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in a 1978 mini-series on NBC

DreamWorks is developing a biopic on civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. for the big screen, according to Variety. Steven Spielberg, Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones will produce.

The DreamWorks project marks the first film to be authorized by the King estate and gives producers the right to utilize King’s intellectual property – including his famous “I Have a Dream” speech – delivered during the 1963 March on Washington.

According to the report, the King project has been a longtime dream for Spielberg and DreamWorks co-chairman Stacey Snider, who has been working on acquiring the screen rights of the civil rights leader, who, in 1968, was assassinated in Memphis at the age of 39.

Martin Luther King Jr. was the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, along with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.