Well, this is effective.
The first trailer for Paramount's Martin Luther King Jr. sorta-biopic “Selma” has arrived, and it's an invigorating 2 1/2 minutes that excellently encapsulates the film's major focus: the tumultuous civil rights marches between Selma and Montgomery that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Awards potential for the Ava DuVernay-directed film remains unclear, though it will qualify for next year's Oscars with a limited run beginning on Christmas Day (it opens wide January 9). At the very least the film could garner some attention for David Oyelowo's performance as MLK, and perhaps Oprah Winfrey's (also a producer on the project) as civil rights activist Annie Lee Cooper.
30 minutes of the film are slated to screen at AFI Fest on November 11.
DuVernay made history at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival when she took home the festival's Best Director prize for her second narrative feature “Middle of Nowhere,” becoming the first African-American ever to win the award. “Selma” is by far her highest-profile feature to date, with a cast also including Tim Roth, Lorraine Toussaint, Common, Giovanni Ribisi and Tom Wilkinson (as then-president Lyndon B. Johnson).
Watch the trailer below.