Gridiron Gang proved that US cinema audiences are always ready to sit down for a good American Football yarn. Which is why 20th Century Fox has caught the ball and bought the rights to Michael Lewis’ book The Blind Side: Evolution Of A Game.
Fittingly for a book that became a hotly contested property, the non-fiction tome covers the race for the hottest players in professional football.
And the story’s main focus is on Michael Oher, an undereducated African American teenager whose father was murdered and whose mother turned to crack. He missed weeks and school, but had an advantage up his sleeve: he weighed 344 pounds, yet was quick on the field. He ended up being taken in by a white couple that groomed him as a star player and dedicated pupil.
"The main through-story is the collision between this destitute 16-year-old black kid and this evangelical rich white couple," Lewis told Variety. "Of all the books I've written, this is by far the most likely to be made into a movie."