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The late great Muhammad Ali is getting the Ken Burns treatment.
The PBS documentarian, who also created the critically acclaimed documentary on Jack Johnson titled Unforgivable Blackness, which was released in 2004, announced Tuesday that he and two partners will make a two-part, four-hour film about the former Heavyweight champ, who died last June (per AP).
Most recently, Burns, his daughter Sarah and David McMahon collaborated for on a PBS documentary on Jackie Robinson that debuted in 2016.
According to the AP report, the tentative plan is to air the Ali film in 2021, which is still quite a few years away. But, if you know anything about Ken Burns, it’ll likely be worth the wait.
Sarah Burns said that the outpouring of good will at Ali’s death made it easy to forget how divisive it was when the former Cassius Clay took the Ali name when he converted to Islam and refused to join the Army during the Vietnam War.
She said filmmakers want to examine what influenced Ali’s choices and how he stuck with them despite public condemnation.
Header photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File
