Angela Bassett to Step Behind Director's Chair With 'United States'

She's played numerous icons (Betty Shabazz, Katherine Jackson, Tina Turner, Rosa Parks and most recently Voletta Wallace) on the big and small screen, has the respect of many of her peers, and is currently appearing on the last season of NBC's 'ER,' but Angela Bassett is about to embark on a journey not shared by many of her female colleagues.
The Hollywood Reporter states that Bassett will make her directorial debut with 'United States,' an indie feature she's also producing with her Bassett/Vance Productions partner and husband Courtney B. Vance.

'United States,' based on the novel 'Erasure' by Percival Everett, is a dramatic comedy about Thelonius "Monk" Ellison, a prominent black literary figure who writes a faux autobiography from the perspective of a barely literate hoodlum troubled by the glorification of "ghetto" culture. When the book is lauded as a contender for the National Book Award, Ellison must choose between pride and fame.