QUICK TAKES - May 20, 2009

DreamWorks plans the first big-screen portrayal of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, the studio announced Tuesday, but two of King’s children immediately threatened legal action because the film deal was brokered without their blessing.

DreamWorks touted the project in a news release as the first theatrical motion picture authorized by the estate using King’s intellectual property, including copyrighted speeches and other works, as the basis for the film. Steven Spielberg was listed as a co-producer. The only other film about King that made it to theaters was a documentary that was shown for one day in 1970.

Dexter King, one of the late civil rights leader’s sons and chairman of King Inc., said in a news release that he hoped the movie would “be the definitive film” on his father’s legacy. Two other King siblings -- Bernice King and Martin Luther King III -- objected, saying they had no input in the deal.