Lee Daniels, the Oscar-nominated director of “Precious,” said that Hugh Jackman is set to star in his civil rights drama “Selma.” The director hopes to begin shooting in May.

Daniels told USA Today:

”I had to do a lot of homework on the script, and I spent a lot of time writing. I feel like I’m caught up a little bit with that,” he said. “I have to really start casting the movie because we’re shooting it soon. The only person I’ve nailed in for sure is Hugh Jac

kman. It’s all over the place.”

So if he says that Jackman is the only person he has locked in, then that scuttles the stories we heard in January about Robert De Niro playing Alabama governor George Wallace. I’m not saying there’s no chance he’ll be in the movie, just that if he’s interested, it’s not a done deal.

A few weeks ago we heard that Hugh Jackman was planning to star in “Avon Man” shooting in Atlanta in April, and “Real Steel” in June, so things will need to stay on schedule for him. If Daniels has casting trouble or deci

des his screenplay needs more tinkering, he could risk losing Jackman–unless the actor decides this project is important enough for him to drop out of something else.

By the way, Daniels didn’t say who Jackman would play. The director said that Lyndon Johnson would be one of the main characters in his script, but Jackman as Johnson would require huge gigantic leaps of imagination, n

ot to mention makeup. More likely he’ll play some kind of fictional or composite character, like the compassionate liberal white lawyer who gets involved in the civil rights movement. That sounds right, doesn’t it?

Hugh Jackman fights his way into another movie.

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