Variety reports that the desperate-for-a-hit Weinstein Company is close to signing Forest Whitaker to star in Patriots, a drama to be directed by Tim Story (Barbershop, The Fantastic Four). Whitaker will play "Al Collins, basketball coach for John Ehret High in Marrero, Louisiana, who led his Patriots to the state championship a year after Katrina ravaged the school and displaced many of its students." Collins' team was made up of ten players who had attended five different schools prior to Katrina. I smell Oscars, baby! This is the first film to set a start date as a result of the WGA's deal with The Weinstein Company. Robert Eisele (writer of The Great Debaters, which also starred Whitaker) wrote the script for Patriots.

Says Story, "I've gotten caught up with the Fantastic Four films but wanted to find a smaller film with heart, that brought me back to Barbershop, and this has come together with one of the best actors out there. What Coach Collins did to give back the lives of his players is so inspiring." It does sound like an inspiring story, and with its post-Katrina setting, it's bound to be moving. But Hollywood, you listen to me and you listen good. I need you to take a year off from the inspirational sports movies set against a backdrop of racism, adversity, etc. Just one year, that's all I ask. I can't take it anymore. I like these movies. The formula works. I love Forest Whitaker. But this is enough. They're all basically the same. And Great Debaters? You count too. Simply substituting debate for basketball or football doesn't disguise you. You're one of them, too. And this is enough.

The Great Debaters is inspired by the true story of how professor Melvin B. Tolson (played by Denzel Washington) formed the first debate team at Wiley College -- a black liberal arts institution -- in the 1930's Jim Crow south. The film was just nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture of the Year, and it co-stars Forest Whitaker. Debaters is Washington's second film as a director (his first was Antwone Fisher). Cinematical attended a press junket earlier this month with Washington and the film's young debaters: Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, and Denzel Whitaker. Yes, the co-star of a movie with Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker is named Denzel Whitaker! To avoid confusion, we'll refer to them as they refer to themselves -- Big Denzel (Washington) and Little Denzel (Whitaker).

What did you guys do to prepare for this film?

BIG DENZEL: We set up a camp for the kids. I met Dr. Freeman, who is the debating coach at Texas Southern, which is one of the top debating schools in the country. I interviewed him and put him on film and asked if we could set up a little mini-camp for the young actors and he put them through their paces.

NP: We arrived and learned all about parliamentary and impromptu debate. Denzel was very adamant about us researching and knowing what we were talking about, and being well versed in the process of debate. So we got the Texas Southern University team, and they took us through it and gave us a class course. They told us we should be more persuasive, being that we're actors! So the first day we learned about debate, the second day we broke into teams and we debated. And the morning of, we were watching CNN and MSNBC and reading the Wall Street Journal. You should have seen us, we took it very serious, and we defeated their freshman and sophomore team.