Will Smith Eyes Bio-Pic of Hurricane Katrina Hero

There have been several documentaries that have tackled the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, and Cinematical reports that now Will Smith will help bring a feature film based on Katrina rescue efforts to a theater near you. John "The Can Man" Keller is a former Marine who lived at the repurposed site of the former American Can Company when Katrina attacked the Gulf Coast, and through his efforts, almost 250 people made it out safely. "There were other people rescuing people," Keller told the Times-Picayane in 2007, "but they didn't hot-wire boats, hot-wire cars, swim to the grocery store, come back with food, cook for all those people, organize them, get the thugs off them." Smith and his Overbrook Entertainment will produce the film for Sony, and although the announcement did not include the name of who might play Keller, if you're thinking Smith the producer is looking too far beyond Smith the actor, I'll fight you on that, even though Keller is a more heroic 6'7" and 260 pounds. Even though Hancock was one of the top five films at the box office last year and Seven Pounds struggled to be successful, Smith is still the biggest movie star in the world. But he does need to continue lining up more serious work that showcase something other than his bankability, and this could definitely be one of those projects. Right now, the bio-pic is carrying the rather unspectacular title of The American Can, and John Lee Hancock (The Rookie) is reworking the script and will direct.

Comments

[Sean]

Wow sounds like an amazing project... A Katrina film is appropriate around this time and is coming at about the right time with this project.

I want the The Trial of the Chicago 7 to come together!!

[Charcole]

Will the thugs be played by Vampires that aren't really vampires though?

[Get The Big Picture]

We can only hope.

[Woodrow Strode Jr.]

Will Smith is perfect for biographing the lives of African Americans, who were unsung heroes. I think he'd do us all a service portraying Kenny Washington who integrated the National Football League with my father Woody Strode in 1946. That story has never been told.

[Meg]

I live in the American Can now...... it's pretty great. I can't imagine how my neighbors did it.

[Katrina Orleans]

This film will be a sham. Read these 2 letters:

Katrina story turns a tragedy into a cartoon
Posted by Letters to the Editor May 30, 2009

Re: "Will Smith to play Katrina hero John Keller in Sony Pictures release, " Living, May 20.

Perhaps you have heard of a recent memoir whose central premise was two lovers who kissed through a concentration camp fence, later exposed as a complete fabrication, with actual Holocaust survivors understandably furious.
Ultimately, John Keller, the "hero" of American Can Co., will be exposed as such a character. I wish you would stop perpetuating his story.
For starters: There was no 11 feet of water in the American Can. At its deepest point, in the deepest part of the street outside, the water was perhaps 6 feet deep. Water was only ankle deep at best in the lobby. Which isn't to say it didn't suck. But when you exaggerate, all can be called into question. Why not throw in some snakes and alligators?
Mr. Keller claims he saved "244" folks. If you did the research you would find there were maybe 400 people stuck in the building -- and that seems generous -- which would mean this guy personally saved two-thirds of them. His only impressive feat is getting his yarn so far up the Hollywood food chain.
I was at American Can. I couldn't have picked this man from a lineup without looking at his picture in the paper. Why? Because while he may have been assisting a handful of people in some wing of the building, the rest of us were doing the same with whoever was within our radius.
I don't want the horror of my Katrina experience turned into a cartoon. The cartoon of "Col. Keller, the One-Man Calvary, Saves the Day!"
There were many quiet and humble heroes from those times, unlike the boastful and self-aggrandizing Mr. Keller.

Brett Evans
New Orleans

National Guard was there to rescue 'Can man'
Monday, April 09, 2007

Re: "The can man," Living, March 25.

The day after Katrina hit, air crews attempted to land on the roof of the American Can Co. However, the roof could not support the weight of a 15,000-pound helicopter, so we relocated alongside Jefferson Davis Parkway.
John Keller would have anyone paying to read his story of selfless booze-looting, boat-stealing and cop-impersonating believe that no one was there to rescue him, and that he shepherded 244 people so impotent they had to cling to his every action in hope of rescue.
The fact is that helicopters were landing on his doorstep every 10 to 15 minutes, 14 hours a day, and lifting 20 to 35 people every time.
Among others, those flying were New Orleans natives, National Guardsman who lived here, worked here and rescued here.
Step onto the sidewalk beside the North Jeff Davis Parkway Post Office and look at the former Lindy Boggs Medical Center. Think about all the hundreds of patients and staff we rescued from this spot.
Then look across Bayou St. John and think about the thousands that swam, waded or floated to us atop debris from all parts of Mid-City while Mr. Keller was only 250 feet away, most of his path under less than a foot of water.
I'm no longer flying for the Louisiana Army National Guard, though I've continued to work in the city now flying an air ambulance helicopter.
We didn't stop flying until we saw no one left waving their hands for help. We did prioritize those in immediate medical need, but we left no one behind.

Nathan B. Blaesing
Harahan