Fresh off his Oscar win, It looks like Forest Whitaker has scored himself another fantastic project. We get the news from
Forest Whitaker is in negotiations to join fellow Oscar laureate Denzel Washington in the period drama “The Great Debaters.”
Washington also is on board to direct the Weinstein Co. project, which chronicles the true story of professor Melvin B. Tolson (Washington), who formed a debate team at a small black college in the 1930s. The team went on to beat Harvard in the national debate championships. Whitaker will play the father of one of the debaters and a rival to Washington’s character.
A movie about a Debating team is going to be tough to make engaging. A movie like this has the potential to drag if the dialogue is not believable. More than any other type of film; all actors involved really need to bring it. We know Denzel and Whitaker can; now we will have to see who they get for the debating teams.
If however, they are able to pull this off, I can see it being fantastic. Movies with debate and/or speeches when done well can have some of the most memorable scenes in all of movie history. 12 Angry Men is one of my favorite films, and it is nothing but people making their case and yelling at each other. If Denzel knocks this out of the park, it will certainly be a feat to be celebrated for him as a director.
Holy fuckin shit! Denzel and Forest have such insane screen presence and to finally see a movie that will hopefully be able hold them is damn good news. I can’t wait!
BTW The movie’s shooting here in Shreveport! Casting call for extras is this week! Denzel’s coming and I can’t wait!
This story’s got Oscar-bait written all OVER it. THESE are the kind of roles the Academy should recognize.
Hey John, hey Doug, you want to get excited about a movie, stop masturbating endlessly over Transformers and get on board this film.
Now, how much you want to bet the Academy completely overlooks this movie and the roles, no matter how good they are? You can bet on it. The blacks in this film don’t sing or dance or portray some demeaning or stereotypical role so the Acedemy has no use for it.
Two great actors against each other – awesome. I always envisioned something like this to happen. I hope that they gel better than Deniro and Pacino did in the movie Heat.
Anything with Denzel and Whitaker is great times for me.
This is insane. I can’t wait to see both of them go at it. The is a must see in my book.
Anything with Whitaker is good times for me.
Anything with Denzel is good times for me.
I heard the original title was the The Master Debaters.