Wendell Pierce latest to join MLK biopic ‘Selma’Posted by Wilson Morales
May 30, 2014
Source: THR
Wendell Pierce, best known for his roles on HBO’s The Wire and Treme, is the latest addition to Ava DuVernay’s MLK biopic, ‘Selma,’ reports THR.
“SELMA” is the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people – a dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with the epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and led to President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The film stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr., Carmen Ejogo as his wife Coretta Scott King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Short Term 12′s Keith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson, Lorraine Toussaint as civil rights activist Amelia Boynton (Robinson), eight-time Grammy nominee artist Ledisi as the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash, Colman Domingo playing the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Andre Holland as politician Andrew Young, Omar J. Dorsey as James Orange, Common as James Bevel, and The Closer’s Corey Reynolds as C. T. Vivian.
Pierce will play Reverand Hosea Williams, who according to Wikipedia, was “a trusted member of fellow famed civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, Jr.’s inner circle. Under the banner of their flagship organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King depended on Williams to organize and stir masses of people into nonviolent direct action in the myriad of protest campaigns they waged against racial, political, economic, and social injustice. King alternately referred to Williams, his chief field lieutenant, as his “bull in a china closet” and his “Castro”.”
The film is shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama.
The screenplay was written by Paul Webb. Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce through their Plan B banner, with Christian Colson through his Cloud Eight Films, and Oprah Winfrey through her Harpo Films. Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes, Cameron McCracken and Nan Morales are executive producing.
Besides playing Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire, trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme, Pierce has appeared in numerous TV shows and films, including Waiting to Exhale, Spike Lee’s Get On The Bus, Barry Levinson’s Sleepers, Ray, Night Catches Us, Horrible Bosses, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and the indie film Four. He will next guest star in season 2 of Showtime’s Ray Donovan.
