Hugh Jackman And Lee Daniels Teaming For MLK Assassination Drama Orders To Kill

It would seem that Hugh Jackman and director Lee Daniels really, really want to work together on something. For the longest time both were attached to the drama Selma, a civil rights story about how Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon Johnson and how the Alabama civil rights march led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act. Unfortunately it was a project killed by time, as both Jackman and Daniels ended up moving on to other projects such as The Wolverine and The Paper Boy, but now they are apparently ready to reteam, and, funny enough, it will be on another story about MLK. This one, however, will be quite a lot different.

The LA Times has learned that the pair are now attached to make Orders to Kill, a film that tells an alternate tale about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Described as an "unconventional view," the story follows lawyer William Pepper, who was the attorney for James Earl Ray and argued for decades that his client didn't assassinate the peaceful civil rights leader. Set over the course of many years, the movie will watch Pepper as he talks to witnesses and tries to get enough evidence to prove Earl Ray didn't commit the acts he was charged with, and claims that the government actually wanted MLK dead because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. Pepper is actually still alive today and Daniels will be using the lawyer's book as basis for the film. Hanna Weg has been hired to write the screenplay.

As for when the project will actually happen, who is to say. Jackman is currently down in Sydney, Australia filming the aforementioned superhero sequel while Daniels is gearing up on his latest project, the star-studded historical drama The Butler. As we learn more about Orders to Kill we will be sure to update.