Universal pulls the plug on Paul Greengrass's MLK biopic, Memphis

One of the films I was most looking forward to next year was Memphis, Paul Greengrass's biopic covering the swirling events around Martin Luther King's last days. It would be a return to Greengrass's grounded, political roots(Bloody Sunday) after the balloon budgeted Green Zone. Not long after announcing the film, Universal committed to financing it. Greengrass would direct, based on his own script, and a slot was established for MLK weekend in February. Sounds like a perfect fit, right?

Apparently not, as Deadline reports Universal has completely backed out on the deal. No financing, no distribution. No nothin'. So what's the deal? It's hard to say. The prevailing story seems to be cold feet, as the Martin Luther King estate was rumored to be against the Greengrass script, and was determined to protest the film should it be released. Universal got scared and backed down. Why they'd do that is beyond me, as the controversy likely would've boosted sales.

But then there's also Universal's fear over having yet another flop on their hands. They've been putting out far more failures than successes over the last year. So now Greengrass is free to shop the film elsewhere(come on, Focus Features!!), and I'm betting it will get picked up. If marketed correctly, we could be looking at another Malcolm X level film. If marketed incorrectly? It might be Invictus.