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Oscar winners Washington, Whitaker to join forces on screen
2007-04-12
The Oscar-winning acting talents of Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker are to join forces for the first time in a drama about a collegiate debating team, reports said Thursday. Washington, a best actor Oscar winner for "Training Day" in 2002, will star in and direct "The Great Debaters," which is loosely based on a true story, entertainment industry reports said. The film tells the story of a group of students from a small college in Texas who are turned into an elite debating team by an inspirational teacher, rising to challenge Harvard's championship squad in the 1930s. Washington is to the play the debate team coach while Whitaker will play the father of one of the students, who finds himself competing for the loyalty of his son with the character played by Washington. Whitaker, who won an Oscar this year for his performance as despotic Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland," is currently filming the Los Angeles drama "Winged Creatures." Washington has recently completed the Ridley Scott crime thriller "American Gangster," also starring Russell Crowe, which will be released later this year. Washington and Whitaker are two of only four black actors to have won the best actor award at the Oscars, along with Jamie Foxx (Ray) and Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field).
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