Lee Daniels and Hugh Jackman are hoping the third time might finally be the charm. The two have been trying to work together for years, first on Daniels' failed Selma biopic, and again on The Butler, with Jackman's schedule(he's shooting The Wolverine right now) proving too cramped for the latter. Now the two are set for Orders to Kill, which is a film that has controversy written all over it.
So what's the big deal about this film? Well, political types like myself who also like to dabble in conspiracy theorist corners on occasion remember that in 1999, a Memphis jury found U.S. governmental agencies to be complicit in the death of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated back in 1968. For years, theories have gone around about who killed the civil rights leader, with many claiming that convicted shooter James Earl Ray was just the fall guy. One of those who thinks this was writer William Pepper, who authored the book the film is based on. As for how that trial came to be, it was initiated after Lloyd Jowers, who owned Jim's Grill near the Memphis hotel where King was killed, came on ABC's Prime Time Live in 1993 to say that the government worked with the mafia on the assassination. The King family filed a wrongful death suit against Jowers and "unknown conspirators", for which Jowers and elements of the government were found responsible. Jowers claimed the actual shooter was police department officer Lt. Earl Clark. The mainstream media barely bothered to cover the whole court proceeding, which still boggles my mind.
So yeah, this could be the sort of film that riles up the country's interest in King's death the same way Oliver Stone's JFK did for Kennedy's. It's unclear when this will take place, as both Daniels and Jackman are hella busy right now. Also, I'm curious to see if the MLK estate will approve of this film, the way they didn't of Daniels' Selma. If I recall, Coretta Scott King was a supporter of the notion the government killed her husband, so maybe the rest of the family agrees? Hanna Weg will be adapting Peppers' book for the big screen whenever production gets underway.
It should be noted that the Department of Justice ran their own investigation into Jowers' claims and found no evidence to support it. But isn't that exactly what you'd expect them to say?
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