News: Huge! Ava DuVernay Tapped By Brad Pitt's Plan B To Take Over Lee Daniels' 'Selma'

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Huge! Ava DuVernay Tapped By Brad Pitt's Plan B To Take Over Lee Daniels' 'Selma' Jul 11th 2013, 19:25, by Tambay A. Obenson 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. 4 years ago, here's how Daniels described the project: "It's a moment in time in Martin Luther King and LBJ's (life) around the signing of the Civil Rights. It's a snapshot of the march. It's really Lyndon Johnson's story. Martin Luther King is a part of it, but it's really the arc of a man that starts out as a racist who is forced to look at himself in the mirror and then ultimately side with King. It's really a journey of a white cat and how he sneers at tradition and against George Wallace, against everybody, says, 'Uh-uh.'" But this should be a nice budget-bump for Ms DuVernay to play with, after directing 2 low-budget indies in I Will Follow and the aforementioned Middle Of Nowhere.  In addition to Oyelowo, the cast of Daniels' Selma also included 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).  No word yet on whether they're still attached. More to come in a minute... Media files: aduv.jpg (image/jpeg)

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