Lee Daniels, whose acclaimed drama, Precious, may well be a contender for Best Picture at next year’s Oscars, has lined up his next film – and, if all goes well, it could be an Oscar-botherer too.
For he’ll direct Selma, named after the Alabama town that played host to a historic civil rights march in 1965; a march that was often disrupted by violence and ugly racism; a march that marked a turning point for African-Americans in their struggle for equality; a march that involved major names in the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Amelia Boynton; and a march that took three attempts before it finally reached its target, Montgomery, a town just 54 miles away.
It’s an astonishing story of hope and determination in the face of overwhelming odds – you can read more about the march here – and should make for a cracking and stirring film, just the sort of fare that attracts Oscar’s gleaming glare.
British producer Christian Colson will oversee the film, the first to come from his new company, Cloud Eight Films. Paul Webb wrote the script. No cast is yet attached, but with a start date tentatively pencilled in for the spring – by which time Daniels may well have at least an Oscar nomination to his name – that should change fairly quickly.