Inner-City Junior High Chess Documentary Getting Dramatic Remake

Sunday at SXSW, the documentary Brooklyn Castle premiered and inspired crowds with its portrait of I.S. 318, a Brooklyn school wherein well over half the students live below the poverty line. The school also has the winningest junior high chess team in the nation, which makes for the inspiring part that Sony Pictures and producer Scott Rudin think could be recreated. They've reportedly bought up the remake rights to the documentary, presumably to turn the story into a rousing, inner-city youth melodrama that for once won't involve some form of dance. It will probably involve a kid characterized by a cowboy hat, though, and it will likely also involve a skinny white lady there to train the kids' DANGEROUS MINDS--because, in fairness, those are elements already seen in the documentary. The chance of chess terms being used as strained, extended metaphor is also through the roof. But that will come later, once Amy Adams probably signs on. For now, here's the recent SXSW trailer for the original: