This summer 2014 I am planning to direct White Water, the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the white’s only drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it.

The screenplay is an adaptation of the writer’s children’s book White Water based on the childhood experiences of Michael S. Bandy and co-written with his writing partner Eric Stein.

I met them while teaching a writing class in the Cosby Program at USC.  I knew their early version of White Water was just keystrokes away from being a fantastic screenplay.  After a few long nights, the guys wrote a gem of a story.

The film is to be shot this summer 2014, and my friend Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, a brilliant screenwriter/director in his own right, will be producing along side of me.  Check out his latest Documentary called Be Known.  It is an amazing look at a year in the life of the profoundly talented percussionist Kahil El’Zabar.

You can read more about White Water the children’s book here: http://www.whitewaterstory.com/The_Book.html.  Also discover more about Shadra Strickland, who created the incredible artwork for the book, here: http://www.shadrastrickland.com/.