If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Writer/directorRyan Cooglerand starMichael B. Jordanhave found phenomenal success in their first two feature films together:Fruitvale StationandCreed, and their third,Black Panther, is currently in post-production. (I’m guessing that quite a few folks will turn out to see that one.) This time around, however, they’ve recruitedBlack Panthercomic writer, The Atlantic correspondent, and award-winning writerTa-Nehisis Coatesto pen the script, just to make their next project all the more amazing.
And as Deadline reports, that next project will beWrong Answer, a dramatic retelling of the 2013 education scandal in which Atlanta-area school educators organized cheating on organized tests. Coates will be adaptingRachel Aviv’s 2014 article about the notorious affair inThe New Yorker.
The true-life tale tells of Damany Lewis (Jordan), a Parks Middle School math teacher who found himself a part of the scandal regarding standardized tests under the No Child Left Behind program, a program originally designed to boost test scores in American schools. However, Lewis' students were severely underprivileged and their declining test scores threatened to close the school itself. Already a teacher, as well as a football, soccer, and softball coach and a chess club founder, Lewis opted to try to cheat those test scores upward, becoming part of U.S. history’s largest academic cheating scandal ever; 11 teachers were ultimately convicted of racketeering.
It’s worth noting that Aviv’s article paints Lewis in a heroic light; both Lewis and Aviv are consultants on the project. New Regency and Plan B have set up the picture, following up on their collaborations for Oscar-winnersThe Big Shortand12 Years a Slave. Jordan, meanwhile, has the starring role of Guy Montag in writer-directorRamin Bahrani’s TV movie adaptationFahrenheit 451coming up soon for HBO, oppositeSofia BoutellaandMichael Shannon.
