Chris Rock to Direct Martin Luther King Jr. Biopic Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg

Chris Rock is bringing the story of Martin Luther King Jr. to life on the display screen.

In collaboration with govt producer Steven Spielberg, Rock, 58, is in last talks to direct and produce a biopic concerning the late civil-rights activist for Common Footage, in line with a launch obtained by PEOPLE.

Kristie Macosko Krieger and Amblin Companions will co-produce alongside Rock, whereas Common’s Senior Vice President of Manufacturing Growth Ryan Jones will oversee, per the discharge.

The movie can be primarily based on Jonathan Eig’s New York Instances best-selling biography, King: A Life.

Launched earlier this yr, the ebook “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 person who recast American race relations and have become our solely modern-day founding father — in addition to the nation’s most mourned martyr,” an official synopsis for the ebook reads.

The film will mark the fourth time Rock has directed and the primary non-comedy movie, after Head of State (2003), I Suppose I Love My Spouse (2007) and Prime 5 (2014).

Information of the upcoming biographical drama comes forward of the discharge of Rustin, starring Colman Domingo as activist Bayard Rustin, who served as one of many most important organizers for the August 1963 March on Washington. It additionally costars Rock as activist Roy Wilkins.

A synopsis for the movie — which is able to debut in choose theaters on Nov. 3 earlier than being obtainable to stream on Netflix beginning Nov. 17 — calls the real-life Rustin “one of many biggest activists and organizers the world has ever recognized.”

“Rustin shines a protracted overdue highlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants just like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, dared to think about a distinct world, and impressed a motion in a march towards freedom,” the outline continues.

Rustin is directed by George C. Wolfe and written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are govt producers, and as well as Domingo and Rock, the forged additionally consists of Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts and Audra McDonald.

The upcoming King biopic, in the meantime, is Rock’s first helming a movie undertaking because the notorious incident on the 2022 Academy Awards the place Will Smith struck him within the face onstage after the comic made a joke concerning the nominee’s spouse, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Rock, who additionally lends his voice to the just lately launched PAW Patrol: The Mighty Film, addressed the assault in his reside particular Chris Rock: Selective Outrage again in March, asserting he “isn’t a sufferer.”

Following the present, an business supply advised PEOPLE that Rock was “driving excessive” and added, “He mentioned what he wanted to say and would not give a s— concerning the response both manner. He is not frightened.”

The supply additionally mentioned that “folks have been ready for [Rock’s] response for a yr,” including, “For essentially the most half, I feel it was nicely acquired. Folks do not anticipate sugarcoating from Chris Rock.”