Ava DuVernay is taking over directing duties of the Martin Luther King Jr feature project that Lee Daniels was once originally attached to helm, but faced a financing wall, and moved on to other projects.
Deadline reports that David Oyelowo, who was to star in Daniels’ project, will stay onboard to play MLK, reuniting with DuVernay (he co-starred in her 2012 acclaimed sophomore effort, Middle Of Nowhere).
Titled Selma, DuVernay was brought onboard to direct the project by Pathe UK, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and producer Christian Colson, who were impressed by her last effort, Middle Of Nowhere.
The feature drama centers on the 1965 landmark voting rights campaign regarded as the peak of the civil rights movement.
DuVernay has reportedly already began scouting locations, and is working over the script with screenwriter Paul Webb, with production aimed to begin sooner than later, given the competition in the form of several other MLK projects, on the horizon.
Daniels’ Selma was reportedly held up because family and close friends of the King estate didn’t approve of the project, which would have highlighted some of King’s vices. No word on whether there’s been a shift, whether in the script, or the attitudes towards it.
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