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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Not long ago, Lee Daniels received a phone call out of left field: George Lucas had seen his film "Precious" and wanted the director to come to his Skywalker Ranch for a visit. Daniels flew up north, had lunch with Lucas and even spent the night in one of his cottages.
"I was nervous and intimidated at first," recalls Daniels, who brought along his leading lady, Gabourey Sidibe. "Then we just kicked back and talked about life and about how the film affected him and his girlfriend. We also talked how sound can help me on my next movie, because I have limited funds. It was a really chill conversation."

Daniels says he now has a new friend whom "I can feel free to call for further advice."

Having Lucas as a mentor is just one of the doors that have opened for Daniels as a result of "Precious." And he's not alone: For many of this year's Oscar nominees, the success of their films has resulted in unimaginable job offers, higher paychecks, more respect within the industry and incoming phone calls from Hollywood power players.

Daniels, who is nominated in two categories -- best picture and best director -- says he's been offered up to $2.5 million to direct everything from a Western to a musical. That's a far cry from the roughly $600,000 he received for "Precious," which he also produced.

Thanks to the film, he's now in discussions with Hugh Jackman, Liam Neeson and Robert De Niro on different projects,] while working on his next movie, "Selma," a civil rights movement drama for Pathe Films and an untitled pilot which he's directing and executive producing for HBO, about a black millionaire and his dysfunctional family in Philadelphia.

"Before, I complained that I would only get considered for a specific type of film, but now they're all over the place," he says. "It's liberating to be looked at as filmmaker, not an 'African-American' filmmaker. That's career-changing for me."

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Lee Daniels at the Oscars: New film, new shoes, new shirt


Lee Daniels and Mo'Nique picked up NAACP Image Awards, and now they hope to win Oscars come Sunday night.



By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY

Lee Daniels, director of the Oscar-nominated film Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, is in Los Angeles, prepping for Sunday's Academy Awards, where his film is nominated for six trophies. Daniels called USA TODAY with an update on pre-Oscar festivities.

Monday night: Oscars? What Oscars? Daniels didn't spend the evening prepping for the big night. Instead, he worked diligently on his upcoming civil rights film, Selma. "I had to do a lot of homework on the script, and I spent a lot of time writing. I feel like I'm caught up a little bit with that," he says. Daniels hopes to start shooting the film in May, and for him, it's crunch time. "I have to really start casting the movie because we're shooting it soon. The only person I've nailed in for sure is Hugh Jackman. It's all over the place." For Daniels, work has been a welcome distraction from the madness of awards season. "Simultaneously I'm working on a pilot for HBO. It pulls me away from having to think about the Oscars. It's God's way of pulling me away."

Tuesday during the day: Daniels taped an appearance on NBC's Last Call With Carson Daly. "I had not done his show before. (Daly's) a really nice guy." On the set, Daniels ran into Lake Bell, who played Alec Baldwin's wife in It's Complicated. "She was really beautiful. That was a fun little moment. She couldn't have been more lovely."

Tuesday night: It's another evening out with one of his Precious stars. This time: musician Lenny Kravitz, who plays a nurse in the film. "We're goingto go out and kick a leg," Daniels says.

It's shoe time: Having celebrity friends has its perks. Daniels, who's still putting together his Oscar ensemble, is getting fashion tips from Kravitz. "Lenny and I are going to talk about some new shoe designers. He's got some shoes coming over to my house for the Oscars," Daniels says. "He's going to introduce me to some shoes. Each day is a new piece. I've got my shirt."

Mellowing out: "My mind-set is,I'm trying to breathe and really enjoy

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Plot Summary: "Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

"It's a moment in time in Martin Luther King and LBJ's (life) around the signing of the Civil Rights. It's a snapshot of the march. It's really Lyndon Johnson's story. Martin Luther King is a part of it, but it's really the arc of a man that starts out as a racist who is forced to look at himself in the mirror and then ultimately side with King. It's really a journey of a white cat and how he sneers at tradition and against George Wallace (Robert De Niro), against everybody, says, 'Uh-uh.'" says Daniels.

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Exclusive: 'Precious' Director Lee Daniels And Robert De Niro Are 'Going To Work Together On Something'4 February 2010 12:00 PM, PST | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »

Recent agency wranglings for Robert De Niro led to a few revelations regarding his upcoming slate. One of the more interesting projects on his platter is something referred to as "Selma," in which he will presumably play Alabama Governor George Wallace in a period civil rights story.

I say "presumably" because when we talked to reported "Selma" (or whatever it will be called) director Lee Daniels the other day about his "Precious" Oscar nominations, he also offered some clarification on that De Niro stuff.


"De Niro is my very, very good friend and we're going to work together on something," he said. "I love him. He's become such a mentor and a buddy and-- we're like brothers."

Unfortunately, Daniels isn't really ready to talk specifics on "Selma"; he refused to comment directly on the Governor George Wallace/De Niro connection, though he admitted that the plan is to work with the actor. »



- Adam Rosenberg

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I found some stuff on wiki but I am not much wiser about people involved in civil rights, except King, of course.

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04 March 2010
Hugh Jackman Goes To Selma
In Lee Daniels' Civil Rights movie
Source: USA Today

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Precious director Lee Daniels, talking to USA Today about his Oscar week activities, let slip that he's cast Hugh Jackman in his next project, US civil rights movie Selma. The role that Jackman's set to play is not yet clear, but we're pretty sure he's not playing the lead.

The main roles in the film are said to be Martin Luther King, his wife Coretta Scott King, and President Lyndon B. Johnson, with the film focusing on the relationship between King and Johnson, and on the three marches from the heavily segregated Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery in 1965 to win support for the Civil Rights movement. We're told that the film will paint a more complex portrait of King than is often given; not underplaying his achievements but equally not portraying him as a saint.

But none of those characters seems an obvious fit for Jackman, what with two of them being black and one of them being ugly, so it may be that he's taking a smaller, supporting role - murdered civil rights activist James Reeb, perhaps? In any case, Daniels' comment to USA Today that this is the only role currently locked in suggested that reports that De Niro had been cast (as, it was rumoured, Alabama Governor George Wallace) were at the very least premature.

Given how exceedingly good Precious was, Daniels is clearly one to watch, so we'll be keeping an eye on this one going forward for further casting news.

Helen O'Hara

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De Niro to star in 'Fields'
Thesp joins Bradley Cooper in suspense thriller

By TATIANA SIEGEL


Robert De Niro has signed on to star opposite Bradley Cooper in Relativity Media's suspense thriller "The Dark Fields."
Project, which begins lensing in Philadelphia in May, marks the first bigscreen deal inked by De Niro since he switched from WME to CAA in January.

Story centers on a down-and-out Gotham writer (Cooper) who comes into possession of a designer drug that gives him newfound intelligence and success. De Niro will play a brilliant financial mogul who begins pursuing Cooper's character...

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James Reeb
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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

James Reeb (January 1, 1927 — March 11, 1965) was an American White Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, Massachusetts who, while marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama, was fatally beaten by segregationists [1]. He was 38 years old.

James Reeb was born in Wichita, Kansas. As a Unitarian Universalist minister, Reeb was active in the civil rights movement, and encouraged his parishioners to do the same. With his wife and four children, he lived in poor black neighborhoods where he felt he could do the most good. Until a few months before his death, he had been Assistant Minister at All Souls Church in Washington, D.C.

A member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Reeb took part in the Selma to Montgomery protest march in 1965. While in Selma on March 9, Reeb was attacked by a white mob armed with clubs, which inflicted massive head injuries. He died in a Birmingham hospital two days later. His death resulted in a national outcry against the activities of white racists in the Deep South, although some expressed indignation that it took the death of a white man to incite such a national outcry. This is to be compared with the case of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot by police in Marion, Alabama two weeks earlier while protecting his mother from a beating; his case attracted much less national attention.

President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the events in Selma "an American tragedy," which, he said, should strengthen people's determination "to bring full and equal and exact justice to all of our people." Johnson's voting rights proposal reached Congress the Monday after Reeb's death.

The James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Madison, Wisconsin is named in honor of Rev. Reeb

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...says the composer who has recently completed the score for his musical about Harry Houdini, which is destined for a Broadway debut starring Hugh Jackman.

"Jackman's name may speed the production along in a way that mine won't," he notes.