MLK movie may not get made

The possibility of a movie based on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been in the news a lot this week, mainly because there are rumors the movie was on the fast track to production. The big announcement this week, is the project has a director attached to it now, and it's big. Steven Spielberg has been announced to direct, and immediately, people are jumping right to the casting, but that may be a bit useless; the film may never reach pre-production.

Before you start naming off who is gonna play the late great civil rights leader, Dreamworks, the company in charge has hit a snag before they have even hired a writer for the script. It seems the family, handling the estate has gotten into a big legal battle over money, and who has rights to the estate. Until then, Dreamworks is planning on backing off and not do anything until the family works out the deal, and exactly who will be handling things from now on. Cinematical has a great quote from the studio "The purpose of making a movie about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is to tell a great story which could bridge distances and bring people together. We remain committed to pursuing a film chronicling Martin Luther King's life provided that there is unity in the family so we can make a film about unity in our nation. We believe this is what Dr. King would have wanted."

So, now that we have the fact the film may never get off the ground, lets move on to the fantasy casting, shall we? There are a lot of quality actors out there who could easily give the part the respect it deserves, but who to cast.

A lot will depend on when in his life they choose to tell the story, but, lets assume it will be toward the end of his life, when most knew him, during the height of the civil rights movement. Would you go with the big box office draw of Will Smith (he was amazing in Ali) or the rock-solid reputation of the over-hyped Denzel Washington? To make the decision even harder, lets add a few more people to the mix, Mekhi Pfeifer, Don Cheadle and Terrance Howard. All of these choices are solid choices that would bring their own element to an already interesting character. My personal favorite at the moment happens to be Chiwetel Ejifor (IMDB page http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0252230/) I think he has done some solid work in movies like American Gangster, Inside Man, and my persona favorite, Serenity. I also think he could hit the look head on.

So, despite the fact that, in my opinion, the MLK movie won't see the light of day for quite a long time, ironically, due to fighting in the King family, the casting is a tough one, but an interesting one. So, who's your pick?