Chris Rock to Direct Martin Luther King Jr. Biopic Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg

The Universal Pictures film will be based on the Jonathan Eig biography 'King: A Life,' which came out earlier this year

Chris Rock is bringing the story of Martin Luther King Jr. to life on the screen.

In collaboration with executive producer Steven Spielberg, Rock, 58, is in final talks to direct and produce a biopic about the late civil-rights activist for Universal Pictures, according to a release obtained by PEOPLE.

Kristie Macosko Krieger and Amblin Partners will co-produce alongside Rock, while Universal’s Senior Vice President of Production Development Ryan Jones will oversee, per the release.

The film will be based on Jonathan Eig's New York Times best-selling biography, King: A Life.

Released earlier this year, the book "follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, [as] Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father — as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr," an official synopsis for the book reads.

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Related: Actors Who Have Portrayed Martin Luther King Jr.

The movie will mark the fourth time Rock has directed and the first non-comedy film, after Head of State (2003), I Think I Love My Wife (2007) and Top Five (2014).

News of the upcoming biographical drama comes ahead of the release of Rustin, starring Colman Domingo as activist Bayard Rustin, who served as one of the main organizers for the August 1963 March on Washington. It also costars Rock as activist Roy Wilkins.

A synopsis for the film — which will debut in select theaters on Nov. 3 before being available to stream on Netflix starting Nov. 17 — calls the real-life Rustin "one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known."

"Rustin shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, dared to imagine a different world, and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom," the description continues.

Rustin is directed by George C. Wolfe and written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are executive producers, and in addition Domingo and Rock, the cast also includes Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts and Audra McDonald.

Related: Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. with 15 of His Most Powerful Quotes

The upcoming King biopic, meanwhile, is Rock's first helming a film project since the infamous incident at the 2022 Academy Awards where Will Smith struck him in the face onstage after the comedian made a joke about the nominee's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Rock, who also lends his voice to the recently released PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, addressed the assault in his live special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage back in March, asserting he "is not a victim."

Following the show, an industry source told PEOPLE that Rock was "riding high" and added, "He said what he needed to say and doesn't give a s--- about the reaction either way. He isn't worried."

The source also said that "people have been waiting for [Rock's] reaction for a year," adding, "For the most part, I think it was well received. People don't expect sugarcoating from Chris Rock."

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