DreamWorks Studios’ announcement Tuesday that it plans a big-screen epic on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. quickly sparked a new battle among his three feuding children.

Dexter King, who lives in California, negotiated the sale of rights by the King estate for what he hopes will be “the definitive film” on his father’s life and legacy, he said in a press release.

But his brother and sister, Atlantans Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, said they only learned of the deal in an e-mail from him Tuesday morning as DreamWorks announced the film project.

They don’t consider the deal valid and plan to fight it, Bernice King said in an interview later Tuesday.