The writer for the award-winning Dallas Buyers Club, Melisa Wallack has been tipped to write the screenplay for the film King of Kings, which is the story of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.
In the early stages, Gateway Films is backing the picture and is currently choosing a director. At the moment, Wallack is working alongside director Jean-Marc Vallee on Janis Joplin: Get it While You Can, and is writing Dancing With Myself for Warner Bros. She was chosen to pen the script after green-lighting the original treatment written by Terry Stone, who will be producing on behalf of Gateway Films. Chris Howard is set to be executive producer for the project.
Stone said, “The Shah of Iran is one of history’s most polarizing figures - once considered amongst the most powerful and reviled figures on the planet.” On the topic of Wallack, “Melisa is a brilliant writer as evidence by Dallas Buyers Club and will provide a timely examination of the legacy of foreign interventionism, and the consequences of the Shah’s reign and eventual downfall.”