Hugh Jackman will need '60s hair for "Orders to Kill."
The LA Times tells us that Hugh Jackman and Lee Daniels, who had tried to work together on the civil rights era film “Selma,” will take another crack at the time period with “Orders to Kill,” a drama about the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination.
The film will tell the story of…
William Pepper (Jackman), a controversial attorney and activist who for decades has argued that convicted killer James Earl Ray, who recanted his confession and died arguing his innocence, didn’t shoot MLK.
The picture will follow Pepper over the years as he wages a one-man campaign, interviewing witnesses and building support for his theory that other interests, including those from the U.S. government, were behind the 1968 Memphis killing. (In a nutshell, Pepper, who is still alive, argues that government interests wanted King dead because of his opposition to the Vietnam War.) It will be based on Pepper’s own book, which has been adapted for the screen by Hollywood screenwriter Hanna Weg.
The project is said to be somewhat like Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” Oh great, conspiracy theory theater.
Daniels’s “The Paperboy” premiered at Cannes to a highly varied mix of cheers and jeers. He’s currently working on “The Butler,” another historical drama about Eugene Allen, a White House butler throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
Hugh Jackman has “Les Miserables” coming out at the end of the year and did voice work for “Rise of the Guardians.” He’s filming “The Wolverine” this summer.
