E.G. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

… the producers might not have wanted to use his actual words, and copyright, easily affordable for a major pic such as this, just made a good excuse.

No mention of other constraints that the estate might have wished to place on which speeches, how they were used, or desires to meddle in the film’s content.

So the movie producers get to keep their dollars, do not have to negotiate away content and portrayal, and get to tinker with the wording of the paraphrased speeches . Sounds like a win.

And the estate gets zip. No money, no input into the movie portrait of his legacy. Sounds like a loose.

And yes, putting a price on something puts it out of reach of people who can’t afford that price, but you can also argue that a major motion picture about a significant historical figure ought to be able to afford that price. It’s not like we’re talking about a student film here.