It seems producer Scott Rudin has had a thing for documentaries lately. Back in January at Sundance, the acclaimed, Oscar winning producer picked up the remake rights to the buzzed about video game documentary “Indie Game: The Movie,” and now at SXSW, he’s swooped in on another doc hoping to turn it into a big screen story.
Down in the rain of Austin, Rudin and Sony Pictures have snagged the remake rights to “Brooklyn Castle” from first time feature filmmaker Katie Dellamaggiore. The movie, which premiered last night and will screen this week as well, tells the story of I.S. 318, a school in Brooklyn where more than 65% of the student population come from a home below the poverty line. However, both the students and teacher have found tremendous success with their chess program, one that has made them one of the top tier junior high teams in the country. But when budget cuts are looming, that very program becomes threatened.
Chess? Boring, right? Wrong. Rudin has been down this path before with Steve Zaillian‘s excellent, underrated “Searching For Bobby Fischer” (whose current DVD is out of print, *ahem* Paramount…) So he knows where to find drama in the game. Anyway, this thing pretty much writes itself and it sounds like a pretty compelling drama. No word yet on who will pen the redo, however the actual documentary is still looking for distribution. That said, this little bit of news should hopefully give it the boost it needs to get to theaters. [Deadline]
