Jamie Foxx’s career still flourishes in the face of White House Down, and Channing Tatum is going strong too. If that movie had starred women instead, I’m sure media outlets wouldn’t be so quick to brush off the hopeful blockbuster turned financial flop. It’s only when a male actor is so egregiously wrong for the profession (like Justin Timberlake) that we hear about how he should GTFO. That’s a tangent for another day.
At the moment, Jamie is getting down to business with talks to play Martin Luther King Jr. in an upcoming biopic. Sources say “the King family is expected to support the long-gestating project,” so it sounds like they’re down with casting Jamie too. Jamie is so talented and focused, so he could definitely pull off the role. As far as Oliver Stone directing the pic? That sounds like a trainwreck:
Jamie Foxx is in talks to play Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that Oliver Stone is in negotiations to direct for DreamWorks and Warner Bros., three individuals familiar with the long-gestating project have told TheWrap.
Oscar winners Foxx and Stone previously worked together on 1999′s football drama Any Given Sunday, which helped put Foxx on the map as a major movie star.
DreamWorks acquired the rights to King’s story in 2009 along with the rights to his “I Have a Dream” speech. In April 2011, the company decided to team up with Warner Bros., which had been developing its own MLK movie with Salem, who spent three years doing research and interviews to inform his screenplay.
The race to get a MLK movie off the ground has become something of a spectator sport in Hollywood. What distinguishes the DreamWorks/WB project is that it boasts the support of the King family, unlike a competing film titled Memphis that Paul Greengrass has spent years developing with producer Scott Rudin. The King family refused to cooperate with that project given its warts-and-all depiction of the civil rights leader.
Stone has long been drawn to politically-themed biopics, having directed JFK, Nixon and W. He most recently directed Savages and just signed on to produce a biopic of Algerian leader Emir Abd el-Kader.
[From The Wrap]
Oliver? Just no. The man would turn this movie into a stylized mess that would only further the agenda of Oliver. Of course the guy does give a good interview, so the press tour would be pretty epic. I don’t think it’s worth the trade off of messing up a King biopic just to let Oliver step onto his latest soapbox.
In other Oliver-related news, he’s hilariously criticizied the ending of Breaking Bad for being ridiculously violent. He admits he never really watched the show and only tuned in for the finale. This is also coming from the guy who directed Natural Born Killers and Savages. Shut up, Oliver whinypants.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
Sure I think he can pull it off. He is a great actor. Why not?
I’m good with Jamie Foxx, but can’t stand Oliver Stone.
“Savages” was a goddamned mess. I don’t understand how he can begin to criticize anything for being too violent.
Yup, this is a redbox movie. No dice seeing it in theaters.
Paul Winfield will always be the best MLK Jr, IMO. That said I think Jamie will do a good job. I’m a fan of Oliver Stone movies so I’m OK with him.
Foxx is great, but Oliver Stone doing a MLK biopic? Just the thought of it makes me a little tired. Everything about that movie is going to shove that its REALLY IMPORTANT down your throat.
Agreed Foxx is great, OS is a bully.
Isn’t Stone a scientologist, he signed an open letter to German chancellor Kohl, protesting against the treatment of scientology in Germany.
Stone always seemed very off to me, I hope he never gets to do a movie about ML King!
Fox? Sure. Not much resemblance but who cares if the performance is right.
Stone? Dear god no. He hasn’t made a great movie in years. Also LOL at him trying to be relevant by talking about the Breaking Bad finale and sounding like an idiot.
Jamie Foxx didn’t really look like Ray Charles either,but he was excellent in Ray. Denzel Washington played Malcolm X and looked nothing like him. Also Jeffrey Wright played Jean-Michel Basquiat and didn’t look like Basqiat at all. Like you said, it’s the performance that counts.
Ok, he might be a good pick for this part, but aren’t there any other African American actors fit for playing Martin Luther King? He’s already done the Ray Charles biopic and even though he’s quite a versatile actor, there are others just as talented.
It will be based very loosely on fact, that’s for sure.
Ray Charles? Yes. MLK? Sorry, can’t see it. Howver, JF is a great actor.
MLK, while passionate about change, struck me as being a real peaceful guy. JF is too fiery imo.
In the top pic it looks like Foxx is saying…
“Who’s job was it to shorten these paints for me?! I look like a fool with all this fabric bunching up at my shoes. What the h*ll! I’m firing someone for sure.”
I think I will watch five minutes of it and make a baseless criticism, just like he did for BB.
Yes to JF, He’s a good actor. No to Stone.
When he was cast in Django I was skeptical to the point I thought I was not going to watch it but I was wrong as he was great in it. So he will probably do a good job.
Jamie Foxx tipped to play Martin Luther King Jr in Oliver Stone biopic: the only pick? – there I fixed it for you.
I guess I’m the only one who’d like to bump JF on the side of the head….sure, he’s a good actor, but he grates on me soooo much.
He pulled off Ray Charles, not so sure about Oliver Stone though.
Not a fan of either one’s work so knock your socks off.
After seeing Jeffrey Wright play Dr. King in Boycott (HBO movie several years back), I have no desire to see anyone else tackle that role. Wright was just too good at it. He managed to get the voice/speech pattern down really well without sounding like he was just doing an imitation. I feel like anyone else would automatically fail in comparison.