From Murderball to Mirror Ball for Dana Adam Shapiro

Murderball’s Dana Adam Shapiro is the latest filmmaker to make the leap from docu form to fiction – The Hollywood Reporter reports that he’ll direct Holler for Screen Gems to distribute and Echo Films’ Kristin Hahn with Tracey to produce. Aniston will executive produce with Jeff Mandel.

Inspired by true events, the script centers on a biracial high school student who returns with his white mother to her hometown in Mississippi, where he falls for a white girl. When prom season arrives at the high school, he is shocked to discover that she cannot be his date at the segregated prom. He soon finds himself the catalyst for change for not only the prom but for the school and entire town.

In her own backyard of Mobile, Alabama, doc filmmaker Margaret Brown recently examined the notion of segregation between black and whites of the local Mardi Gras with The Order of Myths. Fascinating doc, but I’d have trouble seeing how it could work as a piece of fiction – the same goes for The Sundance preemed doc Prom Night in Mississippi which also touches upon the issue.

Screen Gems picked the script out of turnaround from Participant Pictures.