Laurissa 'Lala' Romain Joins The All-Star Cast Of Spike Lee's Civil Rights Drama, SON OF THE SOUTH

Laurissa "Lala" Romain, who has appeared in Chris Rock's Top Five, TBS' Are We There Yet and on Broadway in Roger's & Hammerstein's South Pacific, will make a cameo singing in Barry Alexander Brown's civil rights-era drama Son of the South, which has Spike Lee attached as an executive producer along with Brown.

Laurissa "Lala" Romain will honor Brenda Travis, who was imprisoned for protesting a segregated bus station and in 1961 helped catalyze public sentiment against segregation through her involvement in a peaceful march in McComb Mississippi.

Based on Bob Zellner's autobiography The Wrong Side of Murder Creek and written by Barry Alexander Brown, the film follows the true-life story of Zellner, an Alabama native and grandson of a Birmingham Klansman who is pulled into the center of the civil rights movement.

Romain as Brenda joins the previously announced cast: Lucas Till (the "X-Men" franchise) is starring as Zellner, Lucy Hale as Carol Ann, Zellner's college girlfriend. Lex Scott Davis ("Superfly") is also starring along with Julia Ormond as Virginia Durr, Cedric the Entertainer as Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Sharonne Lanier as Rosa Parks. Brian Dennehy plays Zellner's grandfather. Chaka Forman is portraying his activist father Jim Forman.

"Son of the South" has been shooting in Montgomery, Alabama, where many of the events took place. The producers are Colin Bates of Lucidity Entertainment ("Maggie," "Kidnap") Stan Erdreich, of River Bend Pictures ("Coming Through The Rye"), Eve Pomerance ("As Good As Dead") Bill Black ("Bayou Caviar") and David Kang ("Bodied," "Skin").

Lee is executive producing with his longtime editor Barry Alexander Brown directing from his own screenplay. Lee won the Academy Award for the "BlacKkKlansman" adapted screenplay and Brown received an editing nomination.

Lee and Brown's collaboration dates back to 1986's "She's Gotta Have It," and includes "Do the Right Thing," "Malcolm X," and "Inside Man." Brown also co-directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary "The War at Home."

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