Production Weekly is reporting that Denzel Washington is already in pre-production on The Great Debaters, a film that will serve as his second time in the director’s chair, the first being 2002’s Antone Fisher. The first time we heard about this film was back in August of 2004 and it seems it is finally coming to fruition.
The film is a period drama based on the true story of Mel Tolson, considered one of the great African American poets and in the 1930’s a professor at the historically black Wiley College in Texas. Washington will also play Tolson, who inspired his students to form the college’s first debating team, which went on to defeat Harvard in national championships. They had a young 14-year-old freshman on the team by the name of James Farmer, Jr., who labors in the shadow as a son of a distinguished professor at Wiley College. James’s father was the 1st Negro Ph.D in Texas and speaks seven languages. It is apparent he comes from a well-educated family, when he begins college at the young age of 14.
Filming is scheduled to get underway mid-May, with Columbus Short, in negotiations to play one of Tolson’s students.
Denzel will next be seen in American Gangster opposite Russell Crowe opening in November.
