Any time Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan have paired up the results have been remarkable. From Fruitvale Station to the unexpectedly great boxing film Creed, and currently with Marvel's Black Panther, the duo have found a way to touch on issues of race and class in ways that are dramatic and entertaining. And now they're at it again, only this time with the help of an acclaimed writer on exactly those social issues, Ta-Nehisi Coates. Oh boy.
Coogler will direct Jordan in Wrong Answer, which boasts a screenplay by Coates. Coates is the author of Between the World and Me and The Beautiful Struggle, a strong commentating voice on social justice, and writer of Marvel's Black Panther comic. Synergy, baby. Anyway, the film is based on Rachel Aviv's New Yorker article about Damany Lewis and other teachers at Parks Middle School in Atlanta who cheated so their students could pass the flawed standardized testing implemented by the No Child Left Behind program. In conversations, Lewis has said he felt the pressure to achieve the goals place on him by the national program, but realized that his students, who mostly came from poverty-stricken homes, had problems that were not being accounted for.
Could this be any more perfect? Brad Pitt's Plan B is producing the film, and hopefully this will on the fast track for next year.
