King family feud could derail film on rights leader
DreamWorks Studios wants ‘unity’ among siblings to proceed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s children could derail a major motion picture about their father’s life and legacy unless they all get behind the project.
DreamWorks Studios, which announced Tuesday it planned an epic on King, said Wednesday it needs “unity” among family members to proceed. The studio suggested the civil rights leader would want his children to quit bickering.
MICHAEL A. MARIANT / AJC Special
From left, Dexter King, Bernice King, Andrea Water, and Martin Luther King, III, listen during the memorial service for Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., Thursday, May 31, 2007 in Inglewood, Calif.
Gallery: Who should play Coretta Scott King?
Gallery: Actors who have played Martin Luther King Jr.
MLK Page
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“The purpose of making a movie about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is to tell a great story which could bridge distances and bring people together,” the studio said in a statement.
“We remain committed to pursuing a film chronicling Martin Luther King’s life provided that there is unity in the family so we can make a film about unity in our nation. We believe this is what Dr. King would have wanted.”
On Tuesday, the Rev. Bernice King said she and Martin Luther King III would try to block the film deal between Dexter King and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios, which they only learned of in an e-mail that morning. Dexter King, who runs the family corporation, has been at loggerheads with his two siblings over the handling of King’s legacy and their parents’ estate.
Dexter King said in a statement late Wednesday that he is committed to working with his siblings “to educate people about the life, leadership and teachings of our father, Martin Luther King Jr. … I sincerely hope my brother and sister will join us in supporting this urgently needed project.”
He acknowledged that “communication with family members has been somewhat stymied” by litigation.
Attempts to reach Bernice and Martin King on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Dexter King, 48, who lives in California, said in a news release Tuesday that he had negotiated the sale of rights by the King estate for what he hopes will be the “definitive film” on his father’s life and legacy. His sister denounced it as empire building by her brother and an associate, Madison Jones, who would be a co-producer.
Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor who was a top King aide, said he thinks Spielberg feels an obligation to history to make the film, which Young hopes will be on par with Richard Attenborough’s “Gandhi” or Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.”
“I think this film is decades overdue,” said Young, who was with King when he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. “I have always concerned myself with the family, and it has a financial responsibility for the legacy. But there is a movement legacy that thousands of us were involved with, and I don’t think the story should be suppressed because the family doesn’t agree.”
The King siblings have gone to court in Georgia over control of the corporation that controls their parents’ legacy. That case revolves around papers of their mother, Coretta Scott King, that Dexter King is trying to use for a book and that Martin and Bernice King are trying to block.
Bernice, 46, and Martin King, 51, were also angered by a deal cut by Dexter King and a record company for recordings of their father.
Young said all three King children have wanted their father’s story told comprehensively. The former diplomat said he expects Spielberg can broker a peace.
“They’re not fighting over money — that is a misinterpretation,” said Young. “They are fighting over respect and influence and having input, and all that can be controlled by Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg can reach out and talk to everybody.”
Young said he thinks Bernice and Martin King want the film deal stalled until they resolve the issue about their mother’s papers.
The issue is complicated because Dexter King runs King Inc., the corporation that has the rights to his father’s works. Yolanda King, now deceased, was the executor of their mother’s estate, and Bernice is the executor of Yolanda’s estate, Young said. Yolanda and Coretta Scott King died in 2007 and 2006, respectively.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville has appointed an auditor to determine who has legal rights to boxes of Coretta Scott King’s personal papers, including love letters between she and her husband.
Dexter King wanted to use the letters in an autobiography of his mother, for which he had negotiated a $1.4 million contract.
