Kasi Lemmons(Talk To Me) has enjoyed a mixed career as a director, including similar results when working alongside Samuel L. Jackson. The two struck gold in her directorial debut, Eve's Bayou, but were met with less than positive reviews for The Caveman's Valentine back in 2001. Now they're hoping the third time's the charm as Jackson will be joining her adaptation of the Broadway gospel musical, Black Nativity.
Jackson will be joined by Angela Bassett(Jumping the Broom) in the film, which is based on the Langston Hughes play which hit Broadway in 1961. Jennifer Hudson(Dreamgirls) is circling a role as well, with Lemmons both writing and directing. The story centers on a young black teen from Baltimore who is sent to Harlem by his mother to spend Christmas with the grandparents he's never met. Jackson and Bassett play the estranged grandparents, who teach the boy about faith and family through a stylized retelling of the Nativity Story. Hudson is up for the role of the mother, while the protagonist is still being cast. Jackson just recently starred alongside Bassett in the Broadway play, The Mountaintop, in which he took on the role of Dr. Martin Luther King.
All three actors are extremely busy, so it's unclear when production on this would roll. Lemmons got the shaft when Talk To Me didn't garner more attention, and more offers, for her back in 2007, but maybe this will turn things around. [Variety]
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