KimberlyElise Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When the passionate, inspirational teacher and poet stands on a desk, you know he means business. Robin Williams did it as John Keating in Dead Poets Society, and now Denzel Washington is doing it as Melvin B. Tolson in the latest educational drama, The Great Debaters. A trailer has finally been released on the web, over at Yahoo, and while it starts off with a very recognizable attention-getter, it's still looking pretty darned good in its own right. Granted, I grew up watching school flicks with my dad, so it does hit a soft spot.

Regardless, I have a feeling this flick will do well. Denzel's second directorial effort, Debaters co-stars Forest Whitaker and Kimberly Elise, and it focuses on Tolson, a Texas professor at Wiley College in the '30s. He brought together a collection of his African-American students and created the school's first debate team, which went on to win a televised championship at Harvard. Tolson is snarky, rabble-rousing, and rebellious, which makes him prime meat for an inspirational drama. The film will be released next month, as Santa delivers his annual supply of coal and presents.
Funny site note: Correct me if I'm wrong, but looking at the trailer, it looks like young co-star Denzel Whitaker, who sounds like a love child between Washington and Whitaker, is playing Forest's son. While he has no relation to either actor, he was named after Denzel. Talk about a dream come true for those parents!

I can't be the only one who saw this title of the film and thought of the old joke about "master debaters," but that is probably not the best association to make when you are talking about a family film. Variety reports that Kimberly Elise has signed on to the period flick The Great Debaters. The movie is the second directorial effort from Denzel Washington and centers on a small East Texas debate team that challenged Harvard's famed team to a debate. The film is set in the 30's, which will probably add an extra "feel-good" element to it, as its sure to be not only a story of triumph over adversity, but some deep-seated discrimination. The cast also includes Nate Parker (Pride), Forest Whitaker and Washington who will play the coach of the debate team. Elise is set to play Whitaker's wife and the mother to the team's star debater.

Elise must have had an inside track on the role since one of the film's producers is media queen Oprah Winfrey, who gave Elise one of her first big-screen roles in the adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved, and Elise has already worked with Washington on The Manchurian Candidate. After shooting has finished in Louisiana, Elise will return to work on the international drama Red Soil. The Great Debaters is set for release in 2008.

Friday's bits and pieces:

• First Look has picked up the worldwide rights to this year's Sundance hit, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. The autobiographical film, which is based on parts of director Dito Montiel's memoirs, didn't particularly impress either James or The Hollywood Reporter's Duane Byrge; you can decided for yourself this fall, when the movie is expected to hit theaters.

• According to the latest scuttlebutt, Angelina Jolie might just be spending some (professional, of course) time with George Clooney in the near future. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt is trying to persuade her to join him in Ocean's Thirteen, though who Jolie would play has of course not been discussed -- with this sort of story, it's the idea of the two of them on screen together that's fun. Details, schmetails.
  

• This morning's Hollywood Reporter offers some more details on the rapidly expanding cast of Balls of Fury which, when it comes to buzz, just might be the next Snakes on a Plane. And if it's not, you people are just not paying attention -- it's Christopher Walken! It's ping-pong! I mean, come ON! Joining Walken in the dark underworld of the pong are George Lopez, who will play an FBI agent bent on taking Walken down, and Maggie Q as "the sexy niece of...Master Wong," the master of the paddle who is brought in to train the FBI's pong-plant (that'll be Dan Fogler). How can you resist any of this?

• Until today, P.D.R. -- the based-on-a-true-story movie about a heroic swim coach and the tough youths he straighted out -- had nothing but testosterone on board. Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac are set to costar, while Diana Ross' son Evan, who made an impressive debut in ATL, will play one of the kids. Now, though, there's finally a woman around (Perhaps she'll hang some curtains. Or maybe do some dusting.): Kimberly Elise has come on board as the female lead.