It's been a while since we had an inspirational, feel-good sports film. Luckily, Dimension Films is here to bring us The Longshots.
In 2003, an 11-year-old girl named Jasmine Plummer made history by being the first female to play quarterback in the national Pop Warner football tournament. While you can sum up the entire premise in one simple sentence like that, you can bet there will be the requisite liberties taken with the story. We expect initial resistance from boys who think girls have cooties and are icky, for instance. We also expect her to throw a totally wicked spiral.
The driving force behind the project is ex-gangsta rapper and current family man Ice Cube, who stars and is easily the biggest name involved with the film. Jasmine will be played by Keke Palmer, who you may recognize as the title character in the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee. And (pardon the pun) the kicker here is that I could give you a million guesses and you still wouldn't name the man behind the camera on this one. That would be Fred Durst, yes, of Limp Bizkit fame. This would be his second directorial effort. The first, an indie film called The Education of Charlie Banks, played at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by Anchor Bay Entertainment last fall where it still awaits theatrical or home video release.
With its likely low overhead, it shouldn't be much of a longshot for The Longshots to find its niche with families (and hopefully young females) and become a sleeper hit in late July. (Tim Briody/BOP)
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