Samuel L. Jackson may be 63, but he sure ain’t slowing down and continues to be in pretty much every movie going. Now he’s got another one, as he’s signed on to star in Black Nativity, along with Angela Bassett. Jennifer Hudson is also likely to star, although she hasn’t signed a deal yet.
Kasi Lemmons is directing and adapting Langston Hughes’ 1961 gospel Broadway musical, which reframes the biblical story as the dreams of a black teenager. The film sees the troubled Baltimore teen being sent to stay with the grandparents he’s never met in Harlem. Through his grandfather’s Christmas Eve sermon and a stylised, dream-sequence retelling of the classic Nativity story, he learns about the importance of faith and family.
Jackson and Bassett are set to play the estranged grandparents, Rev. Clarence and Aretha Cobbs. Hudson will be the boy’s mother, who hasn’t spoken to her father since they had a falling out after she got pregnant. Jackson will likely play multiple characters during the Nativity sequence.
Sounds like it could be an interesting one. There’s no news on when it might shoot, although what’s the betting it will open at Christmas (probably in 2013)? (Source: Variety)