Morgan Freeman to play Colin Powell in biopic

By Dave McNary

Morgan Freeman will star as Colin Powell in an independent biopic about the former U.S. Secretary of State.

The film will focus on Powell’s 2003 speech to the United Nations to seek support for the Bush administration’s plan to forcibly remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, based on intelligence — later discredited — that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons. Powell later described the event as a low point in his career.

Reginald Hudlin is attached to direct Powell with Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment and Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment as the production companies. Producers are Amritraj and Lori McCreary, Freeman’s partner at Revelations.

Hudlin will direct from a script by Ed Whitworth, which was on the 2011 Black List. The project will focus on Powell’s tenure as the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position.