It looks like Robert De Niro may have been line up to star as George Wallace in Lee Daniels’ civil rights drama, Selma. The news comes buried in a Deadline Hollywood report about De Niro changing agents, where they note the actor has been cast in “a showy role playing Gov George Wallace in Precious director Lee Daniels’ next pic about desegregation”.
While I don’t know whether I’d call it a ‘showy’ role, it’ll certainly be an interesting one. Daniels’ film will be about the three marches that took place in Selma, Alabama in 1965. The first march planned to go from Selma to the State Capital, Montgomery, but was stopped after only six blocks by police and state troopers after Governor Wallace decided it was a threat to public safety (Wallace hated anything pro-desegregation and was one of the most powerful, vitriolic and visible forces against the civil rights movement). Protesters were them clubbed, gassed and whipped, with the TV footage of the violence shocking the US and galvanising support for civil rights.
A second, symbolic march took place two days later, led by Martin Luther King Jr., which only went as far as the bridge where the previous protesters were stopped, because a court injuction prevented them going all the way to Montgomery. A week later the injuction was lifted and a third march set out, this time making it all the way to the state capital.
It was these marches and the public horror at the beatings of demonstrators that spurred Congress to start drafting laws that ended up with the Voting Rights Act, which for the first time explicitly gave African-Americans the right to vote.
Wallace has become the civil rights bogeyman for his pro-segregationist views and his very public stands to try and prevent any integration in Alabama. It’ll certainly be an interesting role for De Niro, who can hopefully bring a bit of depth to a character who often seems a bit of a cartoon villain.
The same Deadline Hollywood report also mention De Niro is working on another Midnight Run movie. Unfortunately there’s absolutely no details, but it would be great to see the actor back as Jack Walsh. There’s also the possibility of him starring in Paul Weitz’s Another Night In Suck City, where it seems he’d be playing Casey Affleck’s dad in a tale of a fractured father/son relationship. Hopefully more info on all these projects will emerge soon.