De Luca
Warner Bros. Pictures has optioned "Ten Bears," a nonfiction book about the first all-black lacrosse team, for producer Michael De Luca.
Josh Shelov ("Hooligans") is adapting the screenplay.
Written by Chip Silverman and Miles Harrison, Jr., "Ten Bears" is set in the racially turbulent Baltimore of the early 1970s. The team, which included Harrison, was founded in 1970 and comprised off-season college football players from the historically black Morgan State University; most of them had never heard of the game. Their coach was Silverman, who was then a 27-year-old Jewish administrator for MSU's graduate school.
Initially dreadful, the team went on to compete and win in the NCAA championships. The team folded in 1975.
Although the MSU team remains the first and only lacrosse team to come from a predominantly black school, Harrison's son, Kyle Harrison, is now an award-winning lacrosse player at Johns Hopkins University.
Michael De Luca Prods. exec Alissa Phillips brought the book into the company. Warners execs Polly Cohen and Lauren Craniotes oversee development.
De Luca will produce, with Phillips as co-producer.
De Luca is producing "Ghost Rider" for Columbia Pictures, where his production company is based.
Contact Dana Harris at
dana.harris@variety.com