David Oyelowo will make his feature directorial debut with The Water Man, a Black List drama by Emma Needell. According to Deadline, Oyelowo will also produce and star in the film alongside Rosario Dawson. Oprah Winfrey will executive produce. ShivHans Pictures’ Shivani Rawat will finance and produce with Winfrey’s Harpo Films, Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon banner, Carla Gardini and Monica Levinson.
Along with Oyelowo and Dawson, the film features a cast including This Is Us star Lonnie Chavis, who will play a young boy who hopes to find a way to save his mother, played by Dawson. He runs away from home to find the mysterious Water Man, a person who has the power to cheat death. It’s up to the boy’s father (Oyelowo) to find his son, leading the two toward a journey of rediscovering each other. The rest of the cast includes Amia Miller, Maria Bello and Alfred Molina.
According to what Rawat told Deadline, filming will start very soon. “We are thrilled to support David on his directorial debut,” he said. “We can’t wait to start our adventure together in Oregon this spring.”
Aside from The Water Man, Oyelowo’s future projects include Peter Rabbit 2 and Chaos Walking, both of which are set for 2020, and Come Away, which is in post-production.
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Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images, hoto by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for THR
