Dylan Baker Keeps Tabs On MLK In "Selma"

Dylan Baker has joined the cast of the long gestating historical drama "Selma" says Deadline.

 The film follows Martin Luther King Jr‘s (David Oyelowo) historic voting rights campaign that occurred at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

Baker will play former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who carried out extensive investigations of King and his cohorts, including wiretapping and heavy surveillance.

Alessandro Nivola will play Civil Rights lawyer John Doar who was the assistant attorney general of civil rights for the Department of Justice in the 1960s, protected freedom riders while also going after civil rights violators. He was on scene for the third Selma march.

 Tim Roth will play Alabama Governor George Wallace who favored segregation and vowed to stop the march, Alabama State Troopers brutally beating the first wave of protestors. The subsequent national outrage led to an increase in protesters and historic legislation.

Common will play prominent civil rights activist James Bevel, Andre Holland plays Andrew Young a close confidante of MLK.

Tessa Thompson has been cast as Diane Nash, a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and who also played a key role in bringing King to Montgomery, AL, in support of the Freedom Riders.

Carmen Ejogo is tipped to play MLK's wife Coretta Scott King  who married on June 18, 1953--she was also an influential activist during the African-American civil rights movement in the 1960s. She marched with her husband during the Selma Voting Rights Movement.

Tom Wilkinson is eyed to play President Lyndon B. Johnson who gave an eloquent speech about voting rights one week after deadly racial violence erupted in Alabama.

 "Middle of Nowhere" helmer  Ava DuVernay will direct the film using a script that she tweaked   with screenwriter Paul Webb.

Oprah Winfrey Brad Pitt Dede Gardner Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Coulson and Cameron McCracken. are producing the project.

 Production is taking place in Atlanta, Ga., and Montgomery and Selma, Ala.

At one time Lee Daniels was attached to direct the project a few years ago with Oyelowo, Hugh Jackman, Liam Neeson, Ray Winstone, Robert De Niro and Cedric the Entertainer poised to star.  Funding was never fully secured and that version of movie just fell apart.