De Niro Joins Lee Daniels' Civil Rights Film 'Selma'

Lee Daniels is moving on from Precious, which will certainly pick up one Oscar for Best Supporting Actress among several other nominations, to an ambitious project about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s called Selma. This news comes on the heels that Steven Spielberg's bio-pic of Martin Luther King, Jr. (at least as a producer) is getting back on track. And unlike Precious, which featured a cast of unproven actors, the first name to sign up for Selma has done this once or twice. Robert De Niro will play Alabama governor George Wallace in the film, and his story is so intriguing on its own that there's already been a TNT movie about him. Wallace was a staunch segregationist throughout most of his active political life, up through the mid-1970s, until a religious conversion pulled his head out of his ass on that subject. Coming Soon reports that Daniels will also be looking for actors to play Lyndon Johnson and Dr. King, so you can see how big the scope on this project might be. Certainly, Daniels has proven he can handle tough material thanks to Precious and while De Niro has fallen into a fit of self-parody on screen over the past ten years or so, this is a great opporunity to showcase the actor we all admired so much for so many years. The other plus is that De Niro, especially a focused one, can bring a ton of credibility to this project and that could attract the right people to play other key roles. I like Michael Gambon for LBJ, but that's just me. Even though Daniels won't win Best Director, he'll be only the second black filmmaker ever nominated, and I think rightly so. He did an excellent job with Precious, a film that could have been much more maudlin, but he played it straight. If he takes that approach with Selma and lines up a good cast, this should really be something to see.

Comments

[SEAN]

I agree with his nomination, certainly, he did a fine job, great filmmaking no, but definitly some growth & he must of did something to get such great lead performances....

Wow, great little fact I didn't know.... Only the 2nd black filmmaker nominated, jeez louise, whose the 1st???? Spike Lee?

Good for De Niro, loving it...only if Pacino can bring about a resurrection b/c I sure miss him

[YETI]

I believe it was John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood

[Get The Big Picture]

Yep, Singleton was the only other one, and he may have also been the youngest. Him or Welles.