Tony Award-Winner Hugh Jackman is set to star alongside David Oyelowo in Precious director Lee Daniels' upcoming film Semla according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hollywood Reporter states that Jackman will play a "racist sheriff in the tale revolving around the historic marches staged by King in 1965 in Selma, Ala." Oyelowo will take on the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the film.
Selma is a civil rights movement drama and the first project Daniels has taken on since his Oscar-winning film Precious according to THR. The Hollywood Reporter also states that the film is being shopped around to different production companies in an attempt to raise funding for the project.
Hugh Jackman won a 2004 Tony Award, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards for Best Actor in a musical for his portrayal of the 1970s singer-songwriter Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz. Previous theater credits include Carousel at Carnegie Hall, Oklahoma! at the National Theater in London (Olivier Award nomination), Sunset Boulevard (MO Award - Australia's Tony Award) and Disney's Beauty and the Beast (MO Award nomination). From 2003 through 2005 he hosted the Tony Awards, winning a 2004 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical or Comedy program. Most Recently, Jackman starred on Broadway in 'A Steady Rain' opposite Daniel Craig in the fall of 2009.
On screen, Jackman made his first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in the first installment of the X-Men franchise, a role he reprised in the enormously successful X2 and 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. Most recently, he reprised his role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine which serves as a prequel to the popular series and grossed an outstanding $85 million domestically in its first weekend of release in May 2009. In late 2008, Jackman appeared in 20th Century Fox's romantic action-adventure epic Australia directed by Baz Luhrmann. Additional film credits include Deception opposite Ewan McGregor under the banner of his own Production Company, Seed Productions, The Fountain, The Prestige, and Woody Allen's Scoop. In addition, he lent his voice to the animated features Happy Feet and Flushed Away. Other leading roles include Someone Like You, Swordfish, Van Helsing, and Kate and Leopold, for which he received a 2002 Golden Globe nomination.
Oyelowo is an award-winning star in the UK. Born in Oxford, the son of a Nigerian Prince, at the age of 24 he made history as the first black actor to play an English king (Henry VI) in a major production of Shakespeare for the RSC. Currently, he can be seen as Dr. Junju in The Last King of Scotland opposite Forest Whitaker, and is set to burst on the American film scene playing the lead role of Orlando in Kenneth Branagh's new film of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Oyelowo stars as Danny Hunter on the BAFTA award-winning BBC TV series "MI5," airing on A&E. Other television credits include "A Sound of Thunder," "Derailed," and "The Best Man." Recently, he took on one of his most challenging screen roles to date in the acclaimed BBC 2 film Shoot The Messenger, and has just completed filming the HBO mini-series "Five Days."
To read the full THR article about Selma, click here.
