In Brief ...

• DreamWorks said it wanted to make a movie about Martin Luther King Jr. “provided that there is unity” among the civil rights icon’s children.

The studio announced a deal this week with The King Estate for a movie about the civil-rights icon. But two of King’s children immediately threatened legal action, saying they were not involved in negotiating it.

• Ailing Natalie Cole now has a new kidney.

The 59-year-old singer underwent successful kidney transplant surgery “and is resting comfortably,” publicist Maureen O’Connor said Wednesday.

• A publicist for Frank McCourt confirms the Pu­lit­zer Prize-winning author of “Angela’s Ashes” has cancer.

Scribner spokesman Brian Belfiglio said the 78-year-old writer was being treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.