Forest Whitaker is fresh off his Oscar win and ready to join fellow Oscar-winner Denzel Washington in The Great Debaters of which Washington will direct for The Weinstein Company.
Denzel recently decided to play a key supporting role in which he will be featured as a volatile coach who molds a group of students from a small black college in East Texas into an elite debate team in the 1930s that wins the right to go against Harvard’s championship team.
The picture was inspired by a true story and scripted by Robert Eisele. Oprah Winfrey and Kate Forte are producing, through Harpo Films, with Todd Black and Joe Roth. Filming begins next month in Louisiana.
The film will mark Denzel’s second directorial outing, he directed Antwone Fisher in 2002.
