Ejogo To Play Coretta Scott King
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Actress Carmen Ejogo is now trying to land the role of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s wife in a new historical and civil rights drama Selma.
Currently, the actress is the frontrunner to star opposite David Oyelowo. He will be portraying King, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Tom Wilkinson, British actor, has already signed to portray President Lyndon B. Johnson in the new drama, which fairly chronicles 1965 Alabama race protests.
Producers? Oh, just Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt.
Selma presents the three attempts of black marchers to walk from Selma to Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, in 1965, in order to gain voting rights. The first two times they were beaten by the police and by the third time it had become a national crusade.
“It’s a subject matter close to her heart,”
Ava DuVernay, director of the movie, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“The producers are behind some of the most forward-thinking movies of last year, and they are all coming together.”
Wilkinson is currently appearing in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is proving to be a hit ticket on the indie circuit.
He recently completed Good People, an indie crime thriller starring James Franco and Kate Hudson.
Also producing the movie Selma is Christian Coulson, who won an Oscar for producing Slumdog Millionaire.
Pathe, the company which financed last year’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, is also financing Selma, and the company’s Cameron McCracken is also producing.
