Chris Rock tapped to DIRECT Martin Luther King Jr. biopic executive produced by Steven Spielberg… a year and a half after THAT Oscars slap

Chris Rock will now make a biopic about Martin Luther King Jr. directing, with Steven Spielberg on board as executive producer.

Universal has acquired the film rights to King: A Life, a best-selling new biopic from Jonathan Eig that hits shelves in May. Deadline reports.

Drawing on newly available sources, such as FBI documentation only recently declassified, the book offers a warts-and-all overview of the subject’s life that the author hopes will reveal “the real man from the gray mist of hagiography will restore’.

Although Chris rose to fame as a stand-up comic and is also famous as an actor, the biopic is far from the first time he has helmed a film.

Exactly twenty years ago he made his directorial debut with the 2003 political satire Head Of State, in which he also played and wrote the leading role.

Chris directed several episodes of his sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, which was based on his own childhood.

In addition to the feature films Top Five and I Think I Love My Wife, he has also produced comedy specials for himself and Amy Schumer, as well as the 2006 music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Hump De Bump.

This year, Chris starred in another movie related to Martin Luther King Jr. – Rustin, from legendary Broadway director George C. Wolfe.

The film lifts the curtain back on the story behind the 1963 March On Washington, the site of the world-famous “I have a dream” speech.

Chris plays NAACP chief Roy Wilkins, a titan of the civil rights movement and one of the march’s organizers.

Zola heartthrob Colman Domingo, meanwhile, leads the cast as the title character Bayard Rustin, another crucial figure behind the event.

Chris’ latest directorial gig comes a year and a half after he rose to new heights of global fame for getting punched in the face at the Academy Awards.

Will Smith slammed Chris onstage at the 2022 Oscars for making a bald joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who shaved her head because she has alopecia.

‘Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, I can’t wait to see it,” Chris said, referring to the 1997 film starring Demi Moore with a shaved head.

Will initially laughed at the joke, but Jada rolled her eyes and then stormed on stage to punch Chris in the face.

Then Will backed into his seat and shouted repeatedly at Chris, “Keep my wife’s name out of your damn mouth!”

Less than an hour after his outburst, Will was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and received a standing ovation for his tearful speech in which he called himself a protector of his family and expressed a desire to be a “vessel of love.”

Although he apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees during his speech, he did not publicly apologize to Chris until the next day.

After the awards, he went to the Vanity Fair Oscar Party and danced to his own song Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It as other partygoers cheered him on.

As the backlash increased – but before the Academy could decide what punishment to impose for the incident – Will resigned from the organization.

Although his departure meant he could no longer vote for the Oscars, he was still able to attend the show at that time.

However, the Academy has since imposed a ten-year ban on him from attending the ceremony, although he can still be nominated for and win Oscars.

Jada finally addressed the blow in an alopecia-themed episode of her show Red Table Talk in June, urging Will and Chris to work out their differences.

“Now about Oscar night,” she cooed, “my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men get a chance to heal, talk this out and reconcile.”

Meanwhile, a month after the blow, Will turned up in India, where a People A source said he planned to meditate, do yoga and focus on spirituality.

Chris incorporated the incident into material for his next Netflix special Selective Outrage, which was released on the streaming service in March.

“Will Smith is considerably bigger than me,” Chris noted as he discussed how much the blow physically hurt him.

“We’re not the same size, okay? Will Smith makes shirtless movies. You’ve never seen me make a movie with my shirt off.”

He joked, “If I’m in a movie and I’m having open heart surgery, I’ll be wearing a sweater. Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie.”