EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger has signed on to direct the feature film Slay the Dreamer, and he will also direct and produce a feature documentary on the same subject. Pic is based on the life of Rev. James Lawson, friend and advisor to Martin Luther King. A civil rights icon in…

CNN brought Donald Trump surrogate Jeffrey Lord back this evening to address his remarkable statement from this morning calling President Donald Trump “the Martin Luther King of healthcare.” “Jeff, I want to give you a chance to explain yourself, what you meant by your earlier comments,” Anderson Cooper began…

Former AOL-Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin writes guest columns for Deadline when the spirit moves him. Like it has today, on MLK Day, on the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president, and the controversy over his reaction to comments made by iconic Civil Rights reformer and Georgia congressman John…

How could Ava DuVernay, a former Hollywood publicist and Sundance-winning director of a movie that cost just $200,000, be the one to break the long trail of futility in mounting a major movie that conveyed how much of a galvanizing presence Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was in the battle for civil rights in America…

EXCLUSIVE: Big news on the MLK movie front. Paramount is in final negotiations to acquire domestic distribution rights to Selma, a feature drama about Martin Luther King‘s 1965 landmark voting rights campaign regarded as the peak of the civil rights movement, and none other than Oprah Winfrey has boarded the project…

Reports are surfacing that DreamWorks is ready to move forward with the authorized version of Martin Luther King‘s life story, the one that MLK’s family is behind and which has the rights to use his copyrighted speeches. They have Jamie Foxx and director Oliver Stone poised for an Any Given Sunday re-team on the…

The Jeff Zucker-run network's desire to top the cable news heap may still be a dream but CNN did come out on top on Wednesday in one category. CNN was No. 1 among adults 25-54 during President Barack Obama's remarks yesterday commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's historic "I Have A Dream"…

ABC, CBS and NBC said this afternoon they will interrupt regularly scheduled programming tomorrow afternoon to join the cable news networks in carrying live President Obama's remarks on the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, at which Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous "I Have A Dream"…

EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that writer-director Ava DuVernay has been set by Pathe UK, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and producer Christian Colson to helm Selma, a feature drama about Martin Luther King‘s 1965 landmark voting rights campaign regarded as the peak of the civil rights movement. She reportedly has been scouting…

EXCLUSIVE: In honor of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and of the March on Washington, Kino Lorber will release a newly restored and re-mastered edition of Oscar-nominated documentary King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery To Memphis. The updated version of the 1970 film will get a…

EXCLUSIVE… UPDATE: Memphis, Paul Greengrass‘ film about the final days of Dr. Martin Luther King, is coming back around. Now, I hear that steps are underway to make Memphis Greengrass’ next directorial outing. I’ve heard that Veritas is in talks to finance with Wild Bunch. You might recall the picture was shelved…

Few Hollywood films are as difficult to mount as the biopics of historical figures. From The Hurricane to Malcolm X, A Beautiful Mind to Munich, The Social Network to even the most recent Best Picture Oscar winner The King’s Speech, there is always criticism that the filmmakers have been either too tough or too soft…