Derek Luke Replaces Wesley Snipes on Spike Lee’s Miracle

Actor Derek Luke just can’t get enough of the United States Army. Or at least, in the movies, anyway. The actor has signed up to replace Wesley Snipes as the male lead in Spike Lee’s upcoming World War II movie “The Miracle of St. Anna”, playing his second Army character after starring in Robert Redford’s current “Lions for Lambs” War on Terror movie. Snipes had to withdraw from the role because traveling abroad became too difficult, thanks wholly to his current battle with the U.S. Government regarding federal tax-fraud charges, one of those white collar crimes that carries mucho jail sentence if convicted.

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Luke, who plays an Army Ranger in Afghanistan in the Robert Redford-directed “Lions for Lambs,” is re-enlisting in the Army, circa WWII, and joins an ensemble that includes John Turturro, James Gandolfini, Michael Ealy, Omar Benson and Tory Kittles.

Luke will play one of four members of the U.S. Army’s all-black 92nd Division who get separated from their squad behind enemy lines. The soldiers, bitter about racism and the feeling that their own government treats its enemy better than it does them, finds humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna. James McBride wrote the script.

“The Miracle of St. Anna”, which recounts a true story, is currently shooting in Italy.