Partly thanks to his thundering performance in Selma, David Oyelowo is a busy man at the moment. He has plenty of current acting jobs to keep him busy, is in demand for others and continues to push into producing. He’s now in talks – alongside Selma executive producer Oprah Winfrey – to join Disney’s new original drama **The Water Man.
Despite the box office issues with Tomorrowland, it seems the Mouse House is still happy to bet on original stories, though this one should come with a much more affordable price tag. Emma Needell, who has spent years working as an assistant while honing her writing chops, sold the script to the company influenced by her experiences in rural Colorado.
The Water Man finds a precocious lad desperately trying to save his ailing mother. Constantly at odds with his father, he runs away from home to find a mythical person known as the Water Man who, rumour has it, can cheat death. As his father, Amos, heads out to look for the boy, he starts to understand his son a little better. Oyelowo has his eye on the role of Amos and would also produce alongside Winfrey’s Harpo Films, but both are still just at the early negotiation stage.
Oyelowo will be seen in Nina, Five Nights In Maine, Captive and Queen Of Katwe, which is shooting now. He’s also attached to prison thriller Three Seconds alongside Luke Evans.