Universal drops Paul Greengrass's MEMPHIS

Paul Greengrass's Memphis has been dropped by Universal Pictures. The studio has changed it's mind and will no longer be financing and distributing the film about the final days and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Progress has stopped on the film scripted by Greengrass and produced by Scott Rudin. The studio had just picked up the film last month and planned to begin production in June to meet a release date of MLK Weekend, 2012. Deadline reports that the studio has halted the movie because of timing and scheduling, and an uncertainty the film could be pulled together in time for next February.

The MLK estate has also been unhappy with the project and is said to have been putting pressure on Universal. It's reported that Andrew Young, former confidante of the civil rights leader, reached out to the studio personally to register his objections. The same thing is said to have happened when Lee Daniels was trying to make the MLK project, Selma, which seemed about to get underway last fall when The Weinstein Company was set up to finance, but failed to get off the ground. Deadline states that the family had stated they would go public with their displeasure over Greengrass's script, which could have hurt the film's theatrical prospects. It's not known if the estate is up in arms over the film's controversial directions, or because they had given support to the Ronald Harwood-scripted MLK film at DreamWorks (which paid for the rights to use Dr. King's copyrighted speeches).

Rudin and Greengrass are now looking for other financing sources to get the film back on track. Greengrass has had a strong track record with non-fiction features, so it is likely that other parties will step up. Memphis would have been Greengrass's first film at Universal since he directed Green Zone and dropped out of directing a fourth installment of The Bourne Identity.

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