Hollywood is wasting no time in cashing in on the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Several films are already in the works on the subject, most of the documentaries or exposé’s about the government’s complete mismanagement of New Orlean’s most dire moments, but at least one of them is a football movie. Football and natural disasters? Doesn’t exactly seem like a fit does it?
The movie is called Hurricane Season and The Hollywood Reporter says Shattered Glass director Billy Ray has been signed by Universal Pictures to write and direct. The concept is a football movie set during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, based on the true story of the East St. John High School football team near New Orleans. Apparently the story will focus on trying to integrate displaced students from surrounding schools into their roster, and then fighting onward to victory on the field, because as we all know, there’s nothing more important than football. They couldn’t just forfeit their season and join in the cleanup effort instead. No, football is all that really matters. Next up: A courageous college baseball team sets up shop on the World Trade Center memorial and challenges Bin Laden to a nine inning grudge match.
Whether or not you’re feeling good about the concept, Billy Ray is a talented director. Shattered Glass is an oft overlooked little gem, even Hayden Christensen seems good in it. Somehow I doubt a football movie will contain the same sort of complicated subtlety that Glass did, but it will be interesting to see what Ray does in this genre.
Ray starts work on the project next month, by traveling to New Orleans to do research. Meanwhile his sophomore directorial outing Breach is currently in post-production and slated for release in March of 2007.
