Producer Oprah Winfrey Joins the Cast of MLK Biopic Selma

MovieWeb

By Brian Gallagher

Published Jun 20, 2014

Oprah Winfrey is playing Annie Lee Cooper in Selma, an elderly woman who was denied access to vote in the Martin Luther King Jr. biopic, which will be released Christmas day.

Paramount Pictures and Pathé today announced that the feature film Selma will have a limited release in the U.S. on Christmas day and will open wide on January 9, 2015. Directed by Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere), the film is being produced by Oprah Winfrey, Plan B, the producers of the Academy Award-winning 12 Years a Slave, and Cloud Eight Films' Academy Award-winning Christian Colson (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire).

Academy Award nominee Oprah Winfrey joins the film's cast as Annie Lee Cooper, an elderly woman and visible leader amongst the civil rights protesters in Selma who tried to register to vote and was unfairly denied by the sheriff.

The film is currently shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama.

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's release will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the landmark legislation.

The film stars David Oyelowo (Interstellar, Lee Daniels' the Butler) as Martin Luther King Jr., Tom Wilkinson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Michael Clayton) as Lyndon Baines Johnson, Carmen Ejogo (Alex Cross, Pride and Glory) as Coretta Scott King, Andre Holland (42, 1600 Penn) as Andrew Young, Omar J. Dorsey (Django Unchained, The Blind Side) as James Orange, Alessandro Nivola (A Most Violent Year, American Hustle) as John Doar, Dylan Baker (The Good Wife, Damages) as J. Edgar Hoover, Giovanni Ribisi My Name Is Earl, Avatar) as Lee White, Tessa Thompson (Heroes, Veronica Mars) as Diane Nash, Colman Domingo (Lee Daniels' the Butler, 42) as Ralph Abernathy, Stephen Root (Justified, Boardwalk Empire) as Al Lingo, Jeremy Strong (The Good Wife, Zero Dark Thirty) as James Reeb, with Tim Roth (Lie to Me, The Incredible Hulk) as George Wallace, and Oprah Winfrey (Lee Daniels' the Butler, The Color Purple) as Annie Lee Cooper.

Paramount is handling the film's domestic distribution, Pathé is distributing in the UK and France and Pathé International will handle sales to the rest of the world.