By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Plan B, MACRO And Annapurna Producing Coming Of Age Drama On Black, Queer Debate Champion Ryan Wash

PLAN B, MACRO AND ANNAPURNA PARTNER ON UNTITLED RYAN WASH PROJECT

The new project tracks the remarkable journey of black, queer debater Wash

Los Angeles, CA (August 1, 2017) – Plan B Entertainment has partnered with Annapurna and MACRO to tell the true-life story of unlikely debate champion Ryan Wash, it was announced today. Annapurna will distribute the unconventional coming-of-age drama, and, with MACRO, will both co-finance the film and produce the project alongside Plan B and We’re Not Brothers Productions’ Ben Barnz.

Daniel Barnz has been tapped to the direct the currently untitled film and will co-write with Wash, adapting his own story, and Ned Zeman. Wash will also serve as an executive producer on the project.

The film tracks the personal journey of Wash, a queer black debater from Kansas City who won the 2013 Cross Examination Association and National Debate Tournament championships and both challenged and revolutionized the debate establishment itself. He has had a continued impact in the arena, recently coaching the 2017 CEDA and NDT champions.

Plan B recently entered into a first-look deal with Annapurna and have Adam McKay’s biopic CHENEY and an adaptation of James Baldwin’s IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK with recent Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins currently in pre-production.

Wash is represented by Paradigm on behalf of the Gernert Agency. Barnz is repped by WME.

ABOUT PLAN B

Founded in 2002 and headed by Brad Pitt and co-presidents Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Plan B Entertainment has produced quality, award-winning film and television projects. Having established themselves with critically acclaimed titles including The Departed and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, the company went on to produce Eat Pray Love, the Palm d’Or winning The Tree of Life, the Academy and Golden Globe Award winning 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight, Emmy Award winning The Normal Heart, and the Best Picture Oscar nominated Selmaand The Big Short. Plan B’s recent releases include James Gray’s The Lost City of Z for Amazon, David Michod’s War Machine and Bong Joon Ho’s Okja for Netflix. Annapurna will release their next film, Brad’s Status, written and directed by Mike White, and they are currently in post-production on Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy. They are also in pre-production on James Gray’s next feature Ad Astra for New Regency and Adam McKay’s next feature Cheney for Annapurna.

ABOUT MACRO

Launched in 2015, MACRO is an innovative media asset holding company founded by Charles D. King.  The disruptive entertainment company is focused on premium content creation, distribution and engagement for African American, Latino and multicultural (ALM) audiences.  The next generation multi-platform media company closed its first eight-figure round of funding that included lead investor Emerson Collective, founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, in the summer of 2015.

MACRO co-financed and produced Fences, directed by and starring Denzel Washington. Based on August Wilson’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play, the film also starred Viola Davis who won the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film.  Mudbound, directed by Dee Rees and produced and financed by MACRO, that opened to high critical acclaim at Sundance 2017 will be released wide later this year. “Gente-fied,” featuring America Ferrera, is the company’s first digital project and was also featured at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Currently in production is their next film, Roman Israel, Esq., starring Washington.  MACRO is a co-financier on the film along with Sony Pictures.

ABOUT ANNAPURNA

Annapurna, founded by Megan Ellison, focuses on creating sophisticated, high-quality content that is critically and commercially conscious while still appealing to a diverse audience. By upholding Ellison’s vision to put filmmakers and artists first and preserve their authentic creative voices no matter the genre or medium, in 5 years, the company has garnered a total of 32 Academy Award nominations for their projects, including ZERO DARK THIRTY, JOY, THE MASTER, FOXCATCHER, and THE GRANDMASTER. Ellison is also one of only four honorees ever to receive two Best Picture nominations in the same year, with HER and AMERICAN HUSTLE, both earning nods in 2014. Currently, Annapurna is preparing for the release of Kathryn Bigelow’s DETROIT, its first distribution title, that will hit theaters on July 28, 2017. Other upcoming releases for 2017 include Angela Robinson’s PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN. The company is also in production on Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled new period film starring Daniel Day-Lewis and is in production on the film adaptation of Maria Semple’s WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE, to be directed by Richard Linklater.  Annapurna’s most recent projects include Mike Mills’ 20TH CENTURY WOMEN, which was nominated for two Golden Globes and earned Mills a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination, as well as SAUSAGE PARTY, WIENER-DOG, and EVERYBODY WANTS SOME, and THE BAD BATCH. Bigelow also directed and partnered with Annapurna on the animated short LAST DAYS, about illegal elephant poaching and the ivory trade.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon