Samuel L. Jackson is being courted to play civil rights icon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a Broadway production set in a Memphis motel room the day before King’s assassination in 1968, The New York Post said Wednesday.

The Mountaintop – penned by Katori Hall — debuted on London’s West End last yea and is slated to open on Broadway sometime this fall. The play sets up an imaginary exchange between King and a chambermaid.

Kenny Leon — who is up for a Tony Award for directing Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in the theatrical smash Fences — will direct.

Jackson — whose filmography includes Coming To America, 187, A Time To Kill, and Snakes on a Plane – has been offered $50,000 a week to accept the role.

Samuel L. Jackson will host the 17th annual ESPYs this summer.

The 2009 ESPY Awards, celebrating the year’s best in stories, will air Sunday, July 19 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN HD.

Samuel L. Jackson promotes his comic strip-inspired film, The Spirit, opening Christmas Day, on The View Tuesday.

Dimension Films has released a trailer for the upcoming motion picture Soul Men, starring Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, both of whom passed away last month.

The actors play the lone surviving members of popular ’70s soul band in the movie, which opens November 7.