When I saw Robert De Niro in the Godfather Part II I was impressed but it was not until I saw him in Taxi Driver that I became a huge fan of this artist. Indeed, he is an artist that comes so well prepared for his roles that when he has the vehicle to drive, he takes it home as a true winner. 6 Oscar nominations and 2 Oscars in his trophy case proves his peers also think the same as I do. He is truly one of the greatest actors of all time.

I did some research for Robert De Niro's pre-production movies and found that there were 3 movies in the pre-production stage and another 3 in post production that have yet to be released.

The movie in pre-production that I suspect might just give De Niro another Oscar nomination is the movie Selma. Directed by Lee Daniels this film is based on the events in Selma, Alabama surrounding the issues of voting rights and desegregation resulting in civil rights marches. Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King are strong components in the film but the role Robert plays that I think he will be outstanding in is Governor George Wallace. I cannot wait to see this movie

The next two movies in pre-production are so much in their infancy that very little information is available. According to reports by Nikki Finki of the Deadline website De Niro will be doing a sequel to Midnight Run in the near future as well as Another Night in Suck City, to be directed by Paul Weitz and was written by Nick Flynn. This Flynn movie is actually a story of Flynn in the late 20s when he was working in a homeless shelter. This could turn out to be another great role for De Niro.

As I said earlier, when I was researching Robert De Niro's pre-production movies, I also saw 3 movies in post production, Stone, Machete, and a sequel to Meet the Fockers. The latter 2 movies I am not as interested in as Stone.

Stone is a psychological thriller, a genre that I think Robert excels at. He plays the part of a correctional officer and teams up with Ed Norton who plays the part of an arsonist who is up for parole. De Niro is seduced by Norton's wife played by Milla Jovovich. De Niro and Norton paired up in the movie The Score back in 2001 and I think they work together great. This should be an excellent movie.

Robert De Niro will play Senator McLaughlin in the movie Machete with Danny Trejo playing the title role. Cheech Marin (as the priest), Michelle Rodriguez (as Luz) and Jonah Hill (as Julio) also make up an excellent cast. I am on the fence with this one. It could be an excellent film and I am sure De Niro will excel in his role as usual but I am not convinced this movie has a lot of potential.

Then there is the sequel to Meet the Fockers. Both the original and the sequel have outstanding casts when you throw in members like Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand as the Focker family. It was a good comedy but I personally wish they had cast a different actor as Greg Focker as I was never a big Stiller fan.

I also noticed when checking out Robert De Niro's pre-production movies that he has several movies as a director in pre-production, but that will be the subject of a different article.

The arc of history is long. But does it bend toward a Martin Luther King Jr. movie?

For years, filmmakers have tried to get King dramatizations off the ground, with directors as prestigious as Oliver Stone and Jonathan Demme failing to gain traction. Whether because of lack of financing, the absence of a good script or simply the failure of the cinematic planets to align, arguably the most important American of the 20th century, not to mention the story of the movement he helped lead, has gone un-memorialized in the dominant narrative medium of our time.

That omission was on its way to being rectified with a vengeance earlier this year, when no fewer than five King-related projects were under way in Hollywood. With two dropping out and two merging into one, it seems that at least one major King motion picture and a cable miniseries are finally on the way to screens big and small.

In April, DreamWorks Studios and Warner Bros. announced they would join forces to produce an as-yet-unnamed King drama, which is being written by Kario Salem ("The Score"). Both studios had King projects in development, with DreamWorks having secured the cooperation of King estate chairman Dexter King in 2008.

After some initial squabbling with siblings Martin and Bernice King, in 2009 they joined their brother on the project, announcing that DreamWorks would have access to their father's papers, life rights and rights to his speeches

Meanwhile, last year, Lee Daniels, fresh off directing the Oscar-nominated "Precious," indicated that his next film would be "Selma," about pivotal events in that Alabama city in 1964. And in February, Paul Greengrass announced that he would write and direct "Memphis," about King's last days and the search for his assassin.

But in April, Universal Pictures, which had agreed to produce and distribute "Memphis," abruptly confirmed it would not back the film, a reversal that stunned Mr. Greengrass and producer Scott Rudin, who thought they'd be filming in June. Although the studio attributed the change of heart to timing issues, Deadline Hollywood reporter Mike Fleming revealed that Andrew Young — former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador and close King confidant — had read the "Memphis" script and raised objections with Universal executives, which may have informed their decision.

Mr. Young reportedly objected most strongly to Mr. Greengrass' depiction of a character based on Georgia Davis Powers, who, according to her memoir, was with King at the Lorraine Motel the night before he was shot. Reached at his office in Atlanta, Mr. Young said he'd forgotten why he'd objected to Mr. Greengrass' script, but that, like "Selma," which he also read, he felt "Memphis" distorted and sensationalized King's legacy.

"For instance, I read some script where they had King and Ralph Abernathy in Selma, drinking beer and smoking pot," Mr. Young said. "Well, that could not have happened. Every room we ever stayed in was bugged, and if there was ever any incidence of Martin Luther King and drugs, they would have locked him up so quick, you'd never hear from him again. Yet these arrogant screenwriters want to try to humanize him in a way that they … project their weakness on to him."

Those familiar with Mr. Greengrass' script, as well as with his taut truth-based dramas "Bloody Sunday" and "United 93," insist that "Memphis" is anything but prurient or salacious. "I thought it was really compelling and very important," said Mr. Fleming of the screenplay. "It's a little bit warts-and-all, but I think it's a very honorable depiction of Dr. King's struggle. It's not a preachy biopic."

For his part, Mr. Greengrass expressed confidence that "Memphis" would make it to the screen. "We'll set about making the film in due course," he said in an email. "The good thing is this: The way the world is turning right now makes King's legacy and ideas increasingly more relevant. Look at what's happened in the Middle East right now. What do we see? Millions of disenfranchised mainly young people pressing for radical nonviolent change. … This great, unstoppable ideal that King developed in the U.S. is alive and moving across the world today in profound ways."

Perhaps the longest-running attempt to bring King's work to the screen may finally be on the verge of realization: An adaptation of Taylor Branch's trilogy "Parting the Waters," "Pillar of Fire" and "At Canaan's Edge" is in development at HBO under the production auspices of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films. The seven-hour miniseries, which is being adapted by "Pacific" screenwriter Robert Schenkkan, has the potential to capture the complexities, characters and scope of an era that stand in danger of being reduced to stock figures in a standard feature film. After two decades of stops and starts bringing his Pulitzer Prize-winning history to the screen, Mr. Branch said, "I'm more curious than anybody on Earth to see what Robert Schenkkan has come up with."

He continued: "We still have this vast, empty canvas from that period, and the first film that breaks through needs to have some balance. It needs to invite other films to come through." He cites "Mississippi Burning" as an example of a film that had a chilling effect on dramas that sought to tackle the subtleties of the civil rights era, and not only because it cast the FBI in a heroic light, which many observers considered a scandalous distortion of history.

"The movie squandered an opportunity," Mr. Branch said, because "it killed the civil rights workers in the first scene. So you had no sense of why they did what they'd done and why it was so transformative. You didn't feel the movement."

Surprisingly, one of the reasons audiences have gone so long without a King movie may be the King family itself: Understandably seeking to have only the most flattering portrait presented for the permanent record, family members haven't hesitated to contact filmmakers of what they deem to be negative portrayals, suggesting that without rights to King's life and speeches, the projects might be on thin legal ice. Although few filmmakers would admit it, surely some have backed off after these threats, if only to avoid a public relations disaster.

Still, DreamWorks partner and co-chairman Stacey Snider said the studio wanted freedom to quote liberally from King's writings and speeches, without fear of infringing on copyrights. "As a movie executive, usually we want to make things shorter," she said. "In this case, we want the audience to be in the swell of his oratory. … If we are giving it our very best effort to be comprehensive and righteous to his memory, then we have to be comprehensive and righteous to his words."

With the King family executive-producing the DreamWorks-Warner Bros. project, the question arises as to which nuances, if any, of King's life and character might be left on the cutting-room floor. It seems more likely than ever that the arc of history will include a King movie. The question is whether it will bend toward depicting the man or the myth.

First published on August 24, 2011 at 12:00 am

Martin Luther King film, miniseries finally on the way

Michael Elliot, Bill Duke and Robert Townsend are set to lead the American Black Film Festival's 2011 Master Class, while Keenen Ivory Wayans has been chosen to receive the festival's annual Entertainment Icon Award. The fest, now in its 15th year, runs from July 6-9 in Miami.

An Emmy Award-winning writer, director and producer for 25 years, Wayans has been a major creative force behind Eddie Murphy's classic concert film Raw, the early features Hollywood Shuffle and I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, the groundbreaking Fox comedy series In Living Color, plus the films The Five Heartbeats, A Low Down Dirty Shame, White Chicks, Little Man and Scary Movie, which grossed more than $300 million worldwide.

“Keenen Ivory Wayans is a trailblazer in the truest sense of the word,” said ABFF founder Jeff Friday. “In fact, very few people in the industry have provided such a dynamic platform in cultivating such notable talent and revolutionizing comedy and comedic television. Beyond that, Wayans has proven to be an amazing mentor to his family by nurturing the careers of his siblings in the industry, and we are proud to bestow him with the festival’s highest distinction, especially on our anniversary year.”

Wayans' award will be handed out at the ABFF Honors July 9 at the Fillmore Miami Beach Jackie Gleason Theater. Morgan Freeman, Lee Daniels, Spike Lee, Townsend, Russell Simmons and Halle Berry have been previous recipients.

In its second year, ABFF's invitation-only Pro-Hollywood Initiative will continue to encourage professional athletes to explore careers in movies. Baltimore Ravens All-Pro linebacker Terrell Suggs has been named Sports Ambassador for the initiative this year. The PHI master classes, taught by Elliot (Just Wright), Duke (A Rage in Harlem) and Townsend (The Five Heartbeats), cover acting, screenwriting and pitching. Additional filmmaking classes will explore producing, directing, scoring, cinematography and financing.

Keenen Ivory Wayans to Receive American Black Film Fest's Icon Award

'Precious' director Lee Daniels, second from right, poses with his movie's co-stars, from left, Mariah Carey, Mo'nique and Paula Patton, at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

The Oscar-nominated director's next project will be the big-screen adaptation of the dark 1995 crime novel "The Paperboy," a Florida-set story about a newspaper reporter on a life-or-death hunt for answers.

The production is set to arrive in town over the next couple of weeks in preparation for a July shoot.

The cast to this point includes Matthew McConaughey, Tobey Maguire, Sofia Vergara and Zac Efron.

Written by Pete Dexter — author of the award-winning "Paris Trout," which was turned into a film in 1991 — "The Paperboy" focuses on the son of the publisher of a small-town newspaper who gives up his job as a newspaper deliverer to help his hot-shot reporter brother investigate the murder of a death row inmate. Complications ensue, naturally.

Nu Image / Millennium Films ("The Expendables," "The Mechanic," "Drive Angry 3D") is producing. No release date has been announced.

Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Tobey Maguire to join Lee Daniels in New Orleans for 'Paperboy'

This is huge! just a few weeks after winning a Golden Globe, actress/comedian Mo’Nique has received an Oscar nomination for “Best Supporting Actress” for her role in “Precious!” in addition, breakthrough actress Gabourey Sidibe received a nomination for “Best Actress” and the film’s director Lee Daniels received a nod for “Best Director.” The film itself has two nods of its own as well in the “Best Picture” and “Best Adapted Screenplay” categories. And the film’s editor Joe Klotz received his own nomination in the category of “Best Editing.”

In a call to “The Early Show” on CBS this morning, the actress gushed over her most recent honor. “I’m floating!” she exclaimed. as excited as the actress is over her nomination, she’s well aware that the proof is right there for all to see. “I believe it is about the performance,” she said, concluding, “and the performance is on the screen.” The ever-humble star was also quick to point out that awards of this sort were not the driving force behind making “Precious,” a Sundance 2009 favorite directed by “Monster’s Ball” producer Lee Daniels.

“With the campaigning, we were very much behind the movie,” she said. “The message of this movie is so strong that it changed lives. That’s what we were supportive of, that’s what we wanted to get out there.”

Mo’Nique is nonetheless honored by her nomination. “I’m very honored and grateful that they recognized the performance,” she said. “We didn’t do the project in the feeling of ‘This is going to get us an award.’ We did the project with the feeling of, ‘Oh my god, this will change lives.’ so for this to be happening, it is just — it’s beautiful.”

SOURCE: MTV