Oprah Winfrey To Produce Ava DuVernay’s ‘Selma’

It was spotted yesterday, about the cancellation of the Oliver Stone/Jamie Foxx MLK project. Now according to Hollywood Reporter, Oprah Winfrey has agreed to contribute as a producer for Ava DuVernay’s MLK project which David Oyelowo is said to be appointed for the leading role.

DuVernay was replaced by Lee Daniels when the latter had financing issues which led him to shift to other projects.
Winfrey joins the Pathe UK-backed project, which stars Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Christian Colson as producers. The film focuses on the 1965 voting rights campaign which is said to be the peak of the civil rights movement. 

The other key MLK project which is on the go as of now is Paul Greengrass’ Memphis, which is said to start Forest Whitaker as a leading role.

Unfortunately there is been no talks on whether Oliver Stone’s project will see the daylight. As he shared on Twitter, explaining why it’s been cancelled:
“I’m told the estate & the ‘respectable’ black community that guard King’s reputation won’t approve it. They suffocate the man & the truth […] I wish you could see the film I would’ve made. I fear if ‘they’ ever make it, it’ll be just another commemoration of the March on Washington.”

With Oyelowo appointed for the leading role, the cast of Daniels’ original Selma (before DuVernay took over) includes Lenny Kravitz (as civil rights activist Andrew Young), Cedric The Entertainer (as Ralph Abernathy), Hugh Jackman (as racist Selma sheriff Jim Clark), and Liam Neeson (as President Lyndon Baines Johnson).Unfortunately there is no reports on whether the appointed casts are still interested in the projects.  
After Daniel dropped out from the project, he announced the he was teaming with Hugh Jackman (who was also attached to Selma), to take on Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, in a new film that would focus on the “unconventional view of King’s murder.”

The project which is titled Orders To Kill, is said to focus on an different version of the MLK shooting, with Daniels direction, and Jackman starring it is based on William Pepper’s book titled the same, with Millennium Films producing and finance the film.

However, there is no word on whether the project is still alive or not!

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