Denzel Washington Directing 'The Great Debaters'

[Wednesday, August 18th, 2004]
Denzel Washington is no longer directing In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr but is instead directing The Great Debaters, according to MTV.

Based on a true story about an all-black high school debate team in 1935. As for the Sammy Davis Jr. movie, Washington will serve in a producer capacity.

"[Producer] Brian Grazer and I bought the rights to a great book and we're developing the material," Washington said. "I guess because it was in the paper, everybody thinks I'm directing it."

That book is Wil Haygood's biography, "In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr." Washington has hired Haygood to write the first draft of the script, which will start with Davis at age 4, when he first began singing and dancing with his father on the vaudeville circuit.

"I just like the story," Washington said. "It's a different take. It's not just all through his life. It's really about the relationship with him and [mentor] Will Maston and his father."

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