After Green Zone failed at the box office, Universal Pictures is giving Paul Greengrass another chance. We reported The Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum and United 93 director has written and will direct a thriller based on the incidents surrounding Martin Luther King Jr.’s April 4, 1968 assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Titled Memphis, Deadline lets us know Universal will finance the production that begins this early this summer. This comes after news Greengrass has stepped away from a fourth Bourne film, to be taken over by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Duplicity).
Previously: Based on original research by Greengrass, it will look at King’s life during the days leading up to his killing at the hands of James Earl Ray (or so the history books tell us). The last major look at the great civil rights leader’s life took the form of the HBO original movie Boycott, starring Jeffrey Wright as King and which focused on the King-led boycott of public buses in the 1950′s. The period of King’s life Greengrass seems interested in shows King in a much different light. By 1968, King’s marriage was failing and his drinking, smoking and infamous infidelity were reaching new heights. He had alienated President Lyndon Johnson with his outspoken protest of the Vietnam War and was on the outs with the rising Black Power movement over his interest in labor organization and helping the urban poor.
What do you think about Memphis as Greengrass’ next project? Do you think he will ever return to Bourne?