EXCLUSIVE: A feature on Coretta Scott King’s decades long pursuit of the real story behind the 1968 assassination of her husband is in the works from Byron Allen and Ava DuVernay.
The Selma helmer and the Allen Media Group Motion Pictures CEO are developing King Vs. The United States of America for the big screen. Coming on the 20th anniversary of the passing of the civil rights First Lady, the film will delve into King’s search for the truth on what really happened on that terrible day Memphis in the penultimate years of the tumultuous Sixties
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s shooting death the balcony of the Lorraine Motel was pinned on avowed segregationist James Earl Ray alone, but the widow King and much of her family never accepted that his instant confession and convenient lone gunman explanation. After years and years of investigation, including the mid-1970s Senate committee that revealed J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI’s illegal surveillance, wiretapping and taunting of Dr. King, the jury verdict in a 1999 trial concluded there had been a true conspiracy of “government agencies” and more.
“My passion and dedication to exposing the historic secret trial regarding Dr. King’s assassination is unshakable,” AMGMP CEO Allen told Deadline today. “I’ve long been fascinated with the life and legacy of the King family and am honored to explore this chapter in their remarkable true story,” added DuVernay in what some might consider an understatement from the Oscar nominee who made one of the defining films about Dr. King with 2014’s Selma.
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With her husband in the trenches of the civil rights movement, Coretta Scott King continued her leadership role in the years after his murder. A voice for justice, equality, feminism, and LGBTQ Rights, King Center founder Mrs. King became a political force unto herself in the United States and a crusader against South Africa’s racist apartheid regime.
King Vs. The United States Of America will be produced by Allen, Carolyn Folks, Jennifer Lucas, Chris Charalambous and Matthew Signer.
Friday, on a day of National Shutdown protests and racially based arrests of journalists by the Department of Justice, Betrice King remembered her mother as well as her brother Dexter.
After years of building up a portfolio to become one of the country’s largest independent owners of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates, media mogul Allen’s AMG last year sold TV stations in 10 markets to Atlanta’s Grey Media in a deal estimated to be over $170 million. Following her acclaimed Origin film from 2023, DuVernay last year floated the notion of a TV series about former LA Mayor and California gubernatorial contender Tom Bradley. In the meantime, the CAA-repped ARRAY founder has reunited with David Oyelowo, who portrayed Dr. King in Selma and was in the director’s 2018 film A Wrinkle in Time, for Heist of Benin. The thriller was announced last month at the Studiocanal Paris showcase.
