There's a good chance Lee Daniels' The Butler wouldn't have gotten made at all without the power of Oprah Winfrey behind it as one of the film's many producers. But more than that, there's little chance it would have received half as much attention if she hadn't agreed to take a major leading role. And now Winfrey is stepping in front of the camera for another film she's producing, Ava Duvernay's developing Martin Luther King biopic, Selma.
Winfrey is set to play civil rights activist Annie Lee Cooper, an older woman who was prevented by Sheriff Clark from registering to vote. Also coming aboard is Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle) in the role of fellow activist John Doar. They join David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Common, Wendell Pierce, Tessa Thompson, and more in the film which centers on King's 1965 march for voting rights in Alabama, a seminal event in the civil rights movement.
Filming on Selma is underway now. [TheWrap]
