Lee Daniels has added another cast member to his developing film based on the Selma-to-Montgomery marches with British actor David Oyelowo set to portray the late Martin Luther King Jr.
The relatively unknown actor played a role in Kevin MacDonald’s “The Last King Of Scotland” and will star in Anthony Hemingway’s upcoming “Red Tails” but will now face his biggest challenge yet, portraying the great civil-rights activist and iconic African-American leader, King.
Oyelowo joins the likes of Hugh Jackman who previously revealed that he’ll play segregation enforced Sheriff Jim Clark, Lenny Kravitz who was noted to play activist Andrew Young and Robert De Niro who will play racist governor George Wallace (even though Daniels confirmed it to Movieline weeks ago, the trade says the role is still up for grabs).
Despite the already strong cast, financing for “Selma” is hitting a hurdle with Pathe International scaling back its commitment to the project, which is now being shopped around for financiers. Shouldn’t be too hard after ‘Precious,’ right? It’ll be familiar territory for Daniels anyway after facing similar financial troubles with ‘Precious’ before getting the obscure Smokewood Entertainment on board.
Shooting is currently scheduled to begin shooting in May.