EXCLUSIVE: From The Rough in theaters this Fallby Wilson Morales
July 1, 2011
Blackfilm.com has exclusively learned that Gyre Entertainment’s film, ‘From The Rough,’ will be released on October 7, 2011 through AMC Theaters. More details to follow.
The film will make its world premiere at the 2011 Essence Music Festival.
Directed by Pierre Bagley and written by Mike Critelli, the film stars Taraji P. Henson, Letoya Luckett, Tom Felton, Michael Clarke Duncan, Justin Chon, Paul Hodge, Ben Youcef, and Henry Simmons.
‘From The Rough‘ is based on the true story of Catana Starks (played by Henson), a former swim coach at Tennessee State University who became the first woman ever to coach a college men’s golf team. With drive, passion, and guts, she took an unruly group of mismatched kids from around the world and guided them to an all-time record at the PGA National Collegiate Minority Championship.
Tasked with building Tennessee State’s first golf team and finding only one available African American golfer – Craig, a former caddy with plenty of talent but no confidence – Catana Starks pushes outside TSU’s Historically Black context, and, against huge resistance, opens up the roster to underprivileged kids from around the world: Edward (played by Felton), a lower class British youth with a rakish charm and a contempt for authority; Bassam (played by Youcef), a French-Algerian from Paris, angry about the discrimination of his people, soft-spoken but likely to explode; Cameron (played by Hodge), an Australian from a single-parent household with a childhood spent working, using golf as means to escape; and Ji-Kyung (played by Chon), a disaffected South Korean from Orange County with a love of hip hop.
Finding each of these wildly different players in places around the world is tough. Getting them to come together as a team is tougher. But Catana Starks relishes the challenge. At the end of the day, a person’s character is determined by the adversity she faces. Against all odds, Catana Starks takes her underdogs From the Rough and turns them into winners.
Luckett plays Stacey, Edward’s girlfriend.
For more pics, click here
