This Jan. 3, 2019 file photo shows Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., during a swearing-in ceremony of Congressional Black Caucus members of the 116th Congress in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File
NEW YORK (AP) --
CNN Films is developing a documentary on civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Robert Lewis.
The network announced Wednesday that "Gideon's Army" director Dawn Porter is helming the project. She began shooting the 79-year-old Lewis last year ahead of the midterm elections.
The film will be primarily a cinema verite documentary following Lewis from the election through the congressional battles of 2019.
In a statement, Porter said the need has never been greater for "the type of moral and compassionate leadership that he embodies."
Recent CNN Films releases include "RBG," ''Three Identical Strangers" and "Apollo 11," all of which received a theatrical release before appearing on the network.
Marshall Brickman speaks to reporters during a news conference Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
The Oscar-winning screenwriter Marshall Brickman, whose wide-ranging career spanned some of Woody Allen 's best films, the Broadway musical "Jersey Boys" and a number of Johnny Carson's most beloved sketches, has died. He was 85.
Brickman died Friday in Manhattan, his daughter Sophie Brickman told The New York Times. No cause of death was cited.
Brickman was best known for his extensive collaboration with Allen, beginning with the 1973 film "Sleeper." Together, they co-wrote "Annie Hall" (1977), "Manhattan" (1979) and "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993). The loosely structured script for "Annie Hall," in particular, has been hailed as one of the wittiest comedies. It won Brickman and Allen an Oscar for best original screenplay.
In his acceptance speech (Allen skipped the ceremony), Brickman referenced one of the film's many oft-quoted lines, saying: "I've been out here a week, and I still have guilt when I make a right turn on a red light."
"If the film is worth anything," Brickman told Vanity Fair in 2017, "it gives a very particular specific image of what it was like to be alive in New York at that time in that particular social-economic stratum."
Brickman and Allen had met in the early 1960s, when Allen was breaking through as a stand-up comedian. Brickman was brought on to write jokes for him. At the time, he had been playing banjo for the folk group the Tarriers. In one of the many twists of Brickman's career, it was an album he and his college roommate Eric Weissberg recorded that later made the soundtrack to 1972's "Deliverance," including "Dueling Banjos."
Brickman, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the son of Jewish socialists Abram (who fled Poland during WWII) and Pauline (Wolin) Brickman, who was from New York.... Read More
