Dreamworks has hired Ronald Harwood, the Oscar-winnder screenwriter of The Pianist, to pen its upcoming biopic of Martin Luther King Jr. While the studio announced the project quite a while ago, it’s only now that they’ve got around to actually hiring a screenwriter.
Harwood is a pretty strong choice, as he has a long pedigree, including the scripts for The Dresser, Cry The Beloved Coutnry, Being Julia and Australia. He’s also old enough to have lived through the era of the Civil Rights struggle, and having been born in South Africa, has first hand knowledge of living in a segregated society.
With Martin Luther King’s estate backing the project, Harwood will have a wealth of material to draw from, including all of the Civil Rights leader’s writings, speeches and other works. Harwood has said he plans “To be true to the truth”, and he does seem to be a good choice for the project. Although lets hope this one doesn’t take as long for Dreamworks to get off the ground as Steven Spielberg’s Abraham Lincoln biopic.