I skipped The Great Debaters, primarily because it looked to be just another fluff film like the earlier release Pride, and from what I understand it wasn’t much different. Now, the same guy that wrote Debaters has apparently penned himself a Coach Carter style story called Patriots with Tim Story set to direct and Forrest Whitaker to star. Whoopee, isn’t it about enough with these “inspirational”, by-the-book films? On top of being predicatble, Debaters is being innacurate.
So, what’s Patriots all about? Well, Whitaker will play Al Collins, basketball coach for John Ehret High in Marrero, La., who led his Patriots to the state championship a year after Katrina ravaged the school and displaced many of its students. Collins’ team consisted of 10 players who attended five different schools before the disaster.
For anyone that already knows this story, it is actually quite impressive. However, I have no idea what the quality of talent they were facing was, but the road in front of them wasn’t exactly promising considering the situation.
This deal is the first one to be made since The Weinstein Co. brokered a deal with the WGA and apparently things are going to move quickly enough that the film will complete shooting before the expiration of the SAG contract in June and is expected to be ready for the big screen by Thanksgiving. Then again, everything the Weinstein’s make ends up getting released one to two years late.
