You have seen this story before, ad nausea. A gutsy yet compassionate teacher takes a job working at an inner-city school and inspires a cast of potential addicts and dealers into model students. He or she equips them with the tools to combat the danger in their lives through some sort of reformation, like poetry, sports or a spelling bee. We have seen these tales told on the big and small screens so often that we know their didactic formula by heart. And therein lies the problem. If we know exactly what a story is going to provide, there must be a hook to engage us in the plight of the characters – both the educator and his or her pupils.
There is nothing wrong with watching a group of misfits find purpose and overcome adversity, unless the writer and director does little to differentiate their story from better works that have come before.
There is nothing wrong with watching a group of misfits find purpose and overcome adversity, unless the writer and director does little to differentiate their story from better works that have come before.
- 1/13/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Watch the trailer for Millennium Entertainment's Life of a King, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. The drama directed by Jake Goldberger who also writes alongside Dan Wetzel and David Scott, finds release both in theaters and VOD on January 17th, 2014. Also on board the cast are Malcolm Mays, Richard T. Jones, Paula Jai Parker, Carlton Byrd, LisaGay Hamilton, Dennis Haysbert, Kevin Hendricks, Pepi Sonuga, Jordan Calloway and Rachel Thomas. Watch the trailer for Millennium Entertainment's Life of a King, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. The drama is directed by Jake Goldberger who also writes alongside Dan Wetzel and David Scott, finds release both in theaters and VOD on January 17th, 2014. Also on board the cast are Malcolm Mays, Richard T. Jones, Paula Jai Parker, Carlton Byrd, LisaGay Hamilton, Dennis Haysbert, Kevin Hendricks, Pepi Sonuga, Jordan Calloway and Rachel Thomas. Life of a King is the unlikely true story of Eugene Brown and...
- 12/11/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Jake Goldberger's Life of a King has a new poster up which features star Cuba Gooding Jr. The film, also scripted by Goldberger as well as David Scott and Dan Wetzel, includes Malcolm Mays, Richard T. Jones, Paula Jai Parker, Carlton Byrd, LisaGay Hamilton, Dennis Haysbert, Kevin Hendricks, Pepi Sonuga, Jordan Calloway and Rachel Thomas. Life of a King is the unlikely true story of Eugene Brown and his one-man mission to give inner-city kids of Washington D.C. something he never had – a future. He discovered a multitude of life lessons through the game of chess during his 18-year incarceration for bank robbery. After his release and reentry into the workforce...
- 12/6/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Millennium Entertainment has acquired all Us rights to the drama Life Of A King starring Cuba Gooding Jr., directed by Jake Goldberger from a script penned by David Scott and Dan Wetzel. The film is based on the true story of Eugene Brown, who, after being incarcerated for eighteen years, established the Big Chair Chess Club for black youth in the Washington, DC area. The film tells his inspirational story. Gooding stars as Brown, and he's joined by Malcolm Mays, Richard T. Jones, Paula Jai Parker, Carlton Byrd, LisaGay Hamilton, Dennis Haysbert, Kevin Hendricks, Pepi Sonuga, Jordan Calloway and Rachel Thomas. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film...
- 9/30/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Millennium Entertainment acquired U.S. rights to Life Of A King from writer-director Jake Goldberger. Cuba Gooding, Jr. stars. Co-written by Goldberger along with David Scott and Dan Wetzel, the film is based on the true story of Eugene Brown (Gooding, Jr.), an ex-con who founded the Big Chair Chess Club for inner city teenagers in Washington, D.C. The film also stars Malcolm Mays, Richard T. Jones, Paula Jai Parker, Carlton Byrd, LisaGay Hamilton, Dennis Haysbert, Kevin Hendricks, Pepi Sonuga, Jordan Calloway and Rachae Thomas. Serena Films’ Tatiana Kelly and Animus Films’ Jim Young serve as producers. Steak House, Valerie Stadler, and Mary Vernieu serve as co-producers. The company plans on an early 2014 release. After 18 years of incarceration, Brown (Gooding, Jr.) established the Big Chair Chess Club to get kids off the streets and working towards lives they never believed they were capable of.
- 9/30/2013
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
This lovely short film screened at the Boston International Film Festival in April, which is where I saw it. It stars two actors S&A readers will recognize: Tracey Heggins (Medicine For Melancholy, and she has done a few things since then), and Carlton Byrd, who has appeared in some short films S&A has profiled before, like Darius Clark Monroe's controversial Slow, and Train, as well as Tahir Jetter's Close. Andrea Ashton directs from a script written by Andrew Stoneham. I was glad to find out that there's a trailer for it which I just didn't know before, so S&A readers can catch a glimpse of it. Comparisons to films like Before Sunrise...
- 6/3/2012
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
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