Universal Pictures has paid a reported seven figures for screen rights to "I Am a Man,' a book author Hampton Sides is writing about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis and the manhunt for killer James Earl Ray.
According to Variety, the Doubleday book is based on an 11-page proposal that lays out a blueprint for what the Memphis-based author calls "a compressed historical thriller.'
King came to Memphis to lead a strike of garbage workers. After canceling the first march due to violence, he returned, despite a premonition he would be killed in Memphis. He was shot on a hotel balcony by Ray, who was caught two months later, just before fleeing to Rhodesia.
Sides, the bestselling author of "Ghost Soldiers," has unwittingly been close to the King story for most of his life. His father's law firm represented King during the garbage strike, and a friend's father was the neurosurgeon who unsuccessfully operated on King's brain. Also, Ray's lawyer was best friends with the author's father.
"Black Hawk Down' author Mark Bowden will write the script, Variety reports.
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