Freshman director gets 'Cool' start

Greenbaum to helm high school comedy

By TATIANA SIEGEL

Columbia Pictures has tapped frosh director Josh Greenbaum to helm its high school comedy "The Art of Cool." Eric Gold is producing.

Story centers on a geeky student who discovers the classic book "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and literally uses it as a survival guide for navigating the social politics of high school.

Studio paid $600,000 against $850,000 for Alex Sabeti's spec script last year.

Sony's Andrea Giannetti and DeVon Franklin are overseeing for the studio.

Greenbaum, who is enrolled in the graduate film program at USC, shared this year's Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Award with Raul Fernandez and won the MTV Movie award for filmmaker on campus. "Art of Cool" will mark his feature film debut.