Samuel L. Jackson has officially signed up to make his Broadway debut playing civil rights icon Martin Luther King, JR. in a new play.
The Pulp Fiction actor will take to the New York stage later this year (11) with a starring role in The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, which chronicles the imagined events of the night before King was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968.
The long-rumoured casting was confirmed this week (beg11Apr11), with previews set to begin in September (11) ahead of the play's official opening on 13 October (11).
A statement from the show's producers reads, "The Mountaintop is a brilliantly conceived gem of a play. An ambitious work of fiction that is powerful, heartbreaking, humorous and exhilarating... We are honoured to be presenting the Broadway debut of the great Samuel L. Jackson."