Ta-Nehisi Coates will write the script for the story about how a struggling Atlanta middle school participated in a standardized test cheating scandal.
Director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan will reunite once again, after working together on Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther.
Their fourth collaboration will be an adaptation of the New Yorker piece “Wrong Answer.” Ta-Nehisi Coates will write the script based on Rachel Aviv’s article. Her 2014 piece explored the standardized test cheating scandal at Atlanta Public Schools through the lens of one middle school.
Jordan will play math teacher Damany Lewis, who struggles under the pressure imposed on his students and school to meet unrealistic standardized testing scores as part of the No Child Left Behind project. In order to save their jobs and prevent their school from shutting down, he joined in an effort to cheat the scores. The scandal led to 11 teachers being convicted on racketeering charges.
Coogler will produce along with Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B. New Regency’s Arnon Milchan also will produce, and New Regency will fully finance.
Coates is the writer of the new Black Panther comic book series, which is the basis for Coogler’s upcoming Marvel and Disney superhero film. He also is a New York Times best-selling author and a recipient of the coveted MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellowship. His second book Between the World and Me won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize. Coates has previously written for David Simon’s upcoming civil rights miniseries. He is repped by UTA, Watkins/Loomis Agency, and Del, Shaw, Moonves.
Jordan was most recently seen in Creed and will next be seen in Black Panther. He is set to star in HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 with Michael Shannon. Jordan is repped by WME, MGMT Entertainment and Bloom Hergott.
Coogler, whose Black Panther is slated to hit theaters Feb. 16, 2018, is repped by WME and Cohen & Gardner.
