Filmmaker Lee Daniels reportedly wants to bring the story of Martin Luther King Jr. to the silver screen. However, unlike other MLK biopics that have come and gone, Daniels has taken a more controversial approach to the civil rights icon's story. Apparently "Selma," the original MLK project that Daniels and "Red Tails" actor David Oyelowo had been attached to, has been receiving a lot of resistance from the King family. To circumvent this, Daniels might focus on the assassination of MLK instead, by basing the film on the book "Orders to Kill."
Written by controversial attorney and activist William Pepper, the story follows Pepper (who will likely be played by actor Hugh Jackman) on his quest to prove that the man accused and jailed for the assassination of King was not in fact the actual culprit. Instead, Pepper devoted many years of his life to implicating the U.S. government in its role in MLK's assassination. Already adapted to screenplay format, "Order to Kill" has also received the support of King's son Dexter King who has met with Pepper in the past and is set to believe in the attorney's conspiracy theories. With finances and production already in place, Daniels' film now needs a distributor.
