Showtime to build 'Fences'
Goldberg and Glover to topline telepic
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Based on Erika Ellis' novel of the same name, made-for is about an upwardly mobile black family for whom the American dream becomes a nightmare.
Set in the 1970s, pic features Glover as an attorney who is determined to end what he has dubbed "the colored man's losing streak." When his winning of a high-profile case thrusts him into the limelight, he decided to moves his wife (Goldberg) and their two kids out of their mixed lower-middle-class town and into the posh enclave of Greenwich, Conn.
40 Acres topper Spike Lee will executive produce with Sam Kitt, shingle's prexy. Joan Boorstein is the creative executive for Showtime.
Screenplay was penned by Trey Ellis ("The Tuskegee Airmen"). Lensing is slated for August in Toronto under the direction of Ernest Dickerson.
Dickerson, repped by the Gersh Agency, helmed the cabler's upcoming pic "Our America." He previously worked with Lee as cinematographer on "Malcolm X" and "Jungle Fever."
Glover, repped by UTA, earlier this month pacted with CBS to develop and star in a series for the Eye net's 2003-04 lineup (Daily Variety, July 11).
Goldberg, repped by the William Morris Agency, is a producer of Broadway tuner "Thoroughly Modern Millie." Multihyphenate vacated her center square on syndie gameshow "Hollywood Squares" in April.
