DREAMWORKS - HOW MUCH DID DREAMWORKS PAY FOR KING RIGHTS?

HOW MUCH DID DREAMWORKS PAY FOR KING RIGHTS?

In a deal that is certain to raise new questions about the rights to intellectual property claimed by the estates of prominent personalities, DreamWorks announced Monday that it had acquired the "life rights" to Martin Luther King Jr. as a first-step to bringing a biography of the civil rights leader to the screen. The King estate has frequently been embroiled in controversy over its rights claims. In 2003, Cynthia Tucker, a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote These days it is increasingly difficult to remember that the King family was once held in such high esteem. They are mostly known now for their relentless profiteering. The heirs have converted King's legacy into a profit center -- I Have a Dream Inc." And on Saturday, May 16, just two days before the DreamWorks announcement, Charlotte Observer reporter Barry Saunders, wrote in a column that King's three children, Dexter, Bernice and Martin III, "have become not protectors of their father's prophetic image, but profiteers on it." Saunders reported that in April they "demanded and received $800,000 from the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation for the use of King's image and words on the planned King memorial on the National Mall." Terms of their deal with DreamWorks have not been disclosed.

19/05/2009