Chris Rock will direct a Martin Luther King jr. biopic

Chris Rock is in talks to take on what is shaping up to be his biggest directing project yet, a biopic of Martin Luther King Jr. Adding more prestige to the project, Steven Spielberg will reportedly serve as executive producer under his Amblin Partners production company. According to Deadline, Rock is in final talks to sign on to the film with Universal Pictures.

This comes after Universal acquired the rights to Jonathan Eig’s bestselling biography, King: A Life. The book, which has been nominated for a National Book Award, engages “previously untapped sources that include newly declassified FBI information,” per Deadline. It’s an “intimate portrayal of King as a courageous but emotionally troubled individual who demanded peaceful protest while grappling with his own frailties and a government that hunted him,” per publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Rock has three films under his belt as a director, 2003’s Head Of State, 2007’s I Think I Love My Wife, and 2014’s Top Five. According to Deadline, the latter film landed the biggest deal out of the Toronto International Film Festival and opened to largely positive reviews. As an actor, Rock will next be seen in Rustin, another Civil Rights-era historical drama from the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company. Rock plays Roy Wilkins, the NAACP leader who helped organize the 1963 march on Washington, D.C. where King delivered his seminal “I Have A Dream” speech. (That film premieres on Netflix on November 17.)

As for King, Ava DuVernay’s 2014 film Selma is the most recent and probably most prominent portrayal of the iconic leader. David Oyelowo played King in the movie, which focused specifically on the events surrounding the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. The movie got a nod for Best Picture at the 2o15 Academy Awards, though Oyelowo and DuVernay did not receive nominations. This new King film is certainly set to be Rock’s most prestigious project yet, and given the status of its subject and the stars behind the scenes, one can expect to see the film shooting for awards season once again.