NBC is developing a TV series reboot of Finding Forrester, the 2000 movie starring the late Sean Connery and Rob Brown. The Finding Forrester reboot series is set to be directed by Barber Shop and Fantastic Four’s Tim Story, with NBA star Stephen Curry executive producing through Unanimous Media. TJ Brady and Rasheed Newson of The Chi will write the show. NBC is already giving Finding Forrester a script commitment. According to THR, the new series will switch the formula of the original film in a big way, especially where the Sean Connery character is concerned…
For context, here’s the premise of the original Finding Forrester:
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“Jamal Wallace is an inner-city kid from the Bronx who has an aptness at basketball and a genius at writing. While always a C student, Jamal comes to the attention of a prestigious New York City prep school when he scores highly on his standardized tests. While Jamal is given a heavy load at his new school, both he and the school know that the real reason they took him on is for his prowess on the court. Befriended by fellow student Claire and helped along by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and recluse William Forrester, Jamal pursues his dreams on and off the court while overcoming obstacles placed by his bitter literature teacher. As Jamal is shaped by Forrester, he finds that he is changing the old writer as well, forcing him to confront his past and his future.”
The appeal of Finding Forrester was the odd-coupling of an “urban” kid forming a friendship with a cantankerous old successful white intellectual. It was basically Good Will Hunting with feel-good race-relations added to the mix. NBC’s Finding Forrester will go for a more nuanced approach, examining an odd-coupling within a much more diversified social order. As THR explains, the reboot will “center on two Black characters: a homeless 16-year-old orphan whose basketball skills open the door to an elite boarding school and a lesbian author whose career was ruined by scandal… The potential series will also look at costs of success and redemption through the bond between the two characters.”
This new take on Finding Forrester sounds like it will break down the idea of the African-American experience in America being some kind of monolith, to look at how two people of the same race could still end up struggling to relate over a wide divide of social hierarchy. Could be interesting stuff – much less cringe-worthy than seeing (but never unseeing) Sean Connery utter the line “You’re the man now, dawg!”
