Lee Daniels -- from "Precious" to "Selma" to "Saigon"
Fearless West Philly filmmaker Lee Daniels is in the spotlight with "Precious," and plans a pair of unlikely future projects: a film about Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson, and an adaptation of the controversial hit musical, "Miss Saigon."
Lee Daniels is the West Philly filmmaker who got Halle Berry her Oscar (he produced Monster's Ball), who talked Kevin Bacon into playing a Philadelphia pedophile (Daniels produced The Woodsman) and had Cuba Gooding Jr. and Helen Mirren entwined in each other's nakedness on a grassy slope in Fairmount Park for the strange hitman romance, Shadowboxer (Daniels produced and directed).
And now, with Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire, the fearless Daniels has brought the story of an obese, illiterate 16-year-old black girl who is pregnant by her father to the screen. And Oprah and Tyler, as well as audiences and critics, are talking Academy Award noms for the film and its stars. Whatever you think of the film's sometimes over-the-top depiction of abuse and domestic squalor, Precious, with the 350-lb Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe in the title role, represents another bold move for the 49-year-old filmmaker.