‘Selma’ Will Open in Theaters on Christmas

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Guess what film Paramount Pictures will be pushing come awards season (besides Interstellar). I’ll give you one hint: they’ve just announced a prime Christmas Day theatrical limited release date for this dramatic movie. Selma, directed by Middle of Nowhere‘s Ava DuVernay, has landed the December 25th limited release spot to be followed by a wide release on January 9, 2015.

Oprah Winfrey, Christian Colson, and Plan B are producing, and Paramount Pictures and Pathe confirmed today that Winfrey will also play a character in the film. She’s joining the 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.”

Filming is currently underway in Selma, Alabama as well as Montgomery, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia.

The cast is led by David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. and includes Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon Baines Johnson, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Andre Holland as Andrew Young, Omar J. Dorsey as James Orange, Alessandro Nivola as John Doar, Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover, Giovanni Ribisi as Lee White, Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash, Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy, Stephen Root as Al Lingo, Jeremy Strong as James Reeb, and Tim Roth as George Wallace.

The Plot:

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.