Oprah Winfrey, host of the award-winning talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, has yet another project that will hit the theaters next year. The Great Debaters, in which she serves as a producer, is a drama starring and directed by Denzel Washington.
The upcoming movie isn’t Winfrey’s first work as a producer. Apart from hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show, she also serves as the talk show’s producer, as well as on shows and films like Before Women Had Wings, The Women of Brewster Place, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Amy & Isabelle, Tuesdays with Morrie, and Building a Dream: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy just to name a few.
As for Washington, this is his second directorial job following the 2002 film Antwone Fisher, in which he also served as one of the producers.
Written by Robert Eisele and Suzan-Lori Parks, The Great Debaters is based on a true story of Melvin B. Tolson. As a professor at Wiley College in East Texas, he has been inspires by his students to create the college’s first debating team, which successfully conquered Harvard in the national championships.
The Great Debaters, which is currently in production, features Washington as Mel Tolson, along with other cast members such as Jermaine Williams as Hamilton Burgess, Nate Parker as Henry Lowe, J.D. Evermore as Captain Wainwright, Justice Leak as Harland Osbourne, Breon Pugh as Wiley Student, Charissa Allen as Benita, and Robert X. Golphin as Dunbar Reed among others.
In addition to Washington’s film, Winfrey will also serve as the executive producer of Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom’s For One More Day, which is scheduled for production this July and is expected for broadcast in December this year.
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: IMDB
(Photo Courtesy of Oprah.com)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
