Oscar winner Forest Whitaker to play Martin Luther King Jr. in "Memphis"

PanARMENIAN.Net - With a long awards season on the horizon, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker may be adding another prestige project to his plate, as he's in talks to play Martin Luther King Jr. in writer-director Paul Greengrass' drama "Memphis," TheWrap reported.

Now that Abu Dhabi-based Veritas Films and French financier Wild Bunch have agreed to back Greengrass' passion project, it looks like it will be the filmmaker's next movie. An individual familiar with "Memphis" tells TheWrap that Greengrass intends to shoot the movie in a "docu-style" manner similar to how he filmed "United 93."

"Memphis" was originally set up at Universal with Scott Rudin producing, but the project never came together due to several factors including financing and scheduling. Greengrass and Rudin moved on to Sony's Somali pirate drama "Captain Phillips" before they decided to make "Memphis" as an indie movie.

Story follows Dr. King's final days as he struggles to balance his personal life and the civil rights movement while he organizes what ends up being his last protest march in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was assassinated by James Earl Ray. Simultaneously, the FBI, which had been wiretapping King before his death, leads an intense manhunt for his killer.

Whitaker, who won an Oscar for "The Last King of Scotland," next stars in Lee Daniels' drama "The Butler," which the Weinstein Company will release on August 16. TWC is also behind the Whitaker-produced "Fruitvale Station," which has earned rave reviews at both Sundance and Cannes in advance of its July 12 opening. He also co-stars alongside Christian Bale and Casey Affleck in Scott Cooper's gritty drama "Out of the Furnace," which Relativity will debut on October 4.