A double-shot of True Blood's Rutina Wesley in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
First, the actress is said to be in negotiations to star in a drama titled Last Weekend, directed by Tom Dolby and Tom Williams, which centers on the the changes characters in a family home undergo, during their last weekend there.
Wesley would join Patricia Clarkson if she signs on to the project; but no word on what character she'd be playing in the film… not yet anyway.
And secondly, Wesely is also in negotiations to star in a thriller titled Angry Little Gods, to be directed by Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism).
We do know what character she'd be playing in that film – the fiancee to the other star of the film, Mark Webber, who's playing involved in a game that could win him a substantial sum of money, or cost him his life (she doesn't know that he's playing this game by the way).
Angry Little Gods is being produced by Kiki Miyake and Brian Kavanaugh Jones, while Jason Blum and Stuart Ford are executive producing.
Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad) is producing Last Weekend.
Most recently, other than her work in True Blood, Wesley co-starred in a new play last fall, here in NYC, by Jeff Talbott, titled The Submission.
The play centered on a white gay playwright, who poses as a black female playwright and pens a drama about an African American family, under the name Shaleeha G’ntamobi, for which he earns lots of acclaim.
Rutina played an actress named Emilie Martin who the playwright hires to be his physical "front" – Shaleeha G'ntamobi.
Also, with regards to projects not yet realized, also last year, she signed up to star in a film based on Immaculee Ilibagiza's bestselling book, Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.
Immanulee Ilibagiza is a Rwandan author and speaker whose first novel (Left To Tell, published in 2006), details her survival during the Rwandan Genocide, how she hid for more than 90 days, with seven other women, in a tiny room, no larger than 3 feet long and 4 feet wide, only to later learn that the rest of her family had been killed.
The film was to be co-directed by Steve Berkowitz & Keith VanderLaan. No word on if the project is still alive.
IMDB lists a drama called California Winter on her page, which she co-stars in along with Michael Ironside; it lists a 2012 release date, but no month.
Rutina's relatively short onscreen career has seen her work primarily in television. Her last feature film performance was in 2007's How She Move. It would be great to see her utilized in a variety of roles.
