Daniels and De Niro Headed to Selma!

Black Reel Award-nominated director/producer Lee Daniels has announced his next film and it promises to be a big one. The Oscar-winning auteur has cast Robert De Niro to star in the Civil Rights drama, “Selma.”

Daniels’ upoming film tells the story of that hot-bed city that sparked a national furor when segregation in the South was at its worst. Focusing on the man, Wallace, who once famously proclaimed, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Ultimately, it lead to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

“It’s a moment in time in Martin Luther King and LBJ’s (life) around the signing of the Civil Rights,” said Daniels in an interview with ComingSoon.net several months ago. “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.’”

Wallace was the controversial political figure who refused to back down while the rest of the country started to dissolve the segregation of blacks and whites, leading to three famous marches by Martin Luther King, Jr. and his movement between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama to protest Wallace’s unwillingness to give blacks their rights.

Some of the other key roles that need to be cast in Daniels’ film include President Lyndon Johnson and of course, Martin Luther King, Jr., but with the likes of De Niro on board, you have to imagine Daniels will be pulling some big names into the project.