Cinematical

Is it too soon for a feature film about the effects of Hurricane Katrina? Universal doesn't think so. The studio is planning to make Hurricane Season, a feature based on an as yet unreleased documentary called Walking on Dead Fish. The documentary focuses on the East St. John High School football team, which added evacuee students from New Orleans as teammates after the hurricane. The high school is in Reserve, a small town about 30 miles outside of New Orleans. It sounds like Hurricane Season could be one of those feel-good sports-focused films like the kind Disney recently decided to stop making, but with hurricane drama added.

Speaking as someone who grew up in the New Orleans area, I'd like to see some of the many and varied documentaries that local and regional filmmakers have produced about post-Katrina New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. However, a slick studio-produced feature related to those events isn't something I want to see anytime soon. Maybe by the time the film releases, I'll feel different about it.