Actor Wood Harris has landed the role to play Malcolm X in the Lifetime movie, Betty And Coretta.
Betty And Coretta centers on the relationship between Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King. With the story emphasizing how they carried on as single mothers following the assassinations of their husbands, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Harris joins a cast which include Angela Bassett (Coretta Scott), Ruby Dee, Mary J. Blige (Betty Shabazz) and Malik Yoba (Dr. Martin Luther King) in the Lifetime original movie project previously titled Parallel Lives.
Ruby Dee will contribute to Betty And Coretta as a “historical witness” to narrate the story, “as someone familiar with the events of both their lives.”
Harris is most known for his roles as Motaw in the 1994 film Above the Rim, the drug kingpin as Avon Barksdale on the HBO’s hit series, The Wire, and as the the high school football student Julius Campbell in the 2000 film, Remember the Titans.
Yves Simoneau will direct Betty And Coretta, with Blige, Jaja Johnson, Larry Sanitsky, and Polly Anthony on board to executive produce. The script was written by Shem Bitterman and Ron Hutchinson.
On set photo below: