*Chris Rock will direct an upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. biopic with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer.
As People reports, the film will be based on Jonathan Eig’s MLK biography titled “King: A Life.” The best-selling book was released earlier this year and “follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, [as] Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father — as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr,” an official synopsis for the book reads.
The details of the film project have not yet been released.
Rock’s directorial credits include 2003’s political satire “Head of State,” 2007’s “I Think I Love My Wife,” and 2014’s “Top Five.”
News of the upcoming biographical drama comes after comedian Leslie Jones revealed in a recent interview that Rock went to counseling after Will Smith slapped him at the Oscars.
Chris Rock to Direct Martin Luther King Jr. Biopic, Steven Spielberg to Executive Produce https://t.co/S9B4lfy6IL
— Variety (@Variety) October 5, 2023
Jones told People that she was so f*cking mad” after Smith assaulted the comedian at the awards show.
“I would’ve been running around that stage like ‘Will, calm down. Jada, call your man,’” she continued.
“That sh*t was humiliating. It really affected him,” Jones said. “People need to understand his daughters, his parents, saw that. He had to go to counseling with his daughters.”
According to Jones, Smith shouldn’t have accepted the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in “King Richard.”
“He could have still fixed it,” Jones said. “‘I shouldn’t have did that. Bring Chris out. I can not accept the Oscar right now because that was f*cking wrong.’”
READ MORE: Chris Rock Needed Therapy After Will Smith Slapped Him at the Oscars
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