David Ovelowo Joins Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, et al. in The Help Film

Stage and screen star David Oyelowo will join the previously reported Viola Davis, Allison Janney, and Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help, according to a report in Variety. Tate Taylor is directing his adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel of the same name.

The film, which will also star Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer, is set in 1962 and concerns a young white woman who collects the stories of the black women on whom the country club set relies.

In New York, Oyelowo starred in Classic Stage Company’s production of Prometheus Bound. In the U.K., he starred as Henry VI for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The actor’s film and television credits include Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It and the ABC film version of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, as well as Red Tails, The Last King of Scotland, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and the forthcoming Selma opposite Hugh Jackman.