Oliver Stone has parted company with the planned Martin Luther King biopic, and has explained why on Twitter...
The planned biopic of Martin Luther King won't be pressing ahead with Oliver Stone on board, the writer/director has confirmed via his Twitter feed. The movie is being developed by Warner Bros and DreamWorks, and Stone announced that "my MLK project involvement has ended. I did an extensive rewrite of the script, but the producers won't go with it".
Subsequent Tweets from Stone went into a little more detail. Specifically, these three...
The script dealt w/ issues of adultery, conflicts within the movement, and King’s spiritual transformation into a higher, more radical being
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
I’m told the estate & the ‘respectable’ black community that guard King’s reputation won't approve it. They suffocate the man & the truth.
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
I wish you could see the movie I would've made. I fear if ‘they’ ever make it, it’ll be just another commemoration of the March on Washington
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
And he signed off by adding...
Martin, I grieve for you. You are still a great inspiration for your pal Americans—but, thank God, not a saint.
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) January 17, 2014
We'd imagine the biopic is still an active project, and it'll be interesting to see who does get the job. Given Stone's past history of complex biopics that don't pull many punches, his approach is hardly a surprise, and Warner Bros and DreamWorks must have known that when they hired him. Maybe one day his screenplay will drop online and we'll be able to see exactly how he was going to approach the movie.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that's your thing!