The legendary Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will have his story told on the big screen this holiday season.
Paramount and Pathé Pictures, with help from the powerhouse production team that brought you 12 Years a Slave, Plan B, will be releasing the Paul Webb-scripted Martin Luther King Jr. biopic, Selma, in limited release Christmas Day. The film, directed by Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere) and produced by Christian Colson and Oprah Winfrey, will then see a full nation wide release on January 9, 2015. The drama already has an awards-friendly pedigree in its production team, and the weight of the material surely will carry this film handsomely into awards season.
David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Butler) will star as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the film will center on the civil rights leader's noble goal of acquiring voting rights for people of all races, particularly in a small town in Alabama.
The title Selma comes from the city of Selma, Alabama, where King started and led a march to Montgomery. King would lead three of these marches, and the coverage from journalists helped opened the eyes of the rest of the country to the realities of the civil rights movement, like the brutality of Southern, white police officers on non-violent protestors. The film will culminate in President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The film also stars Tom Wilkinson as Johnson, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Andre Holland as Andrew Young, Omar J. Dorsey as James Orange, Alessandro Nivola as John Doar, Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover, Giovanni Ribisi as Lee White, Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash, Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy, Stephen Root as Al Lingo, Jeremy Strong as James Reeb, Tim Roth as George Wallace, and producer Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper.
Source: Deadline
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