Oscar winner Forest Whitaker may have found the role that will earn him a second Oscar.
The Wrap reports that the “Last King of Scotland” actor is circling “Memphis,” a biopic about Martin Luther King, Jr. The movie will be directed by Paul Greengrass in a handheld “docu-style,” similar to how he shot “United 93.”
“Memphis” focuses on MLK's final days, struggling to balance his personal life with the Civil Rights movement. King is “depressed about the state of both his marriage and that of war-ravaged and socially-divided America, as well as the fear of being marginalized by a new generation of younger black leaders.”
The movie follows King until he's shot and killed on April 4, 1968, as well as the FBI's efforts to track and capture the shooter, James Earl Ray.
King's family has raised objections to Greengrass's project, for his “warts-and-all portrayal” of the activist. But Deadline writer Mike Fleming read the script and called it “Oscar caliber stuff.”
Whitaker next stars in “The Butler” in August.
[via TheWrap]
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