Will Smith's prodco to tell the story Katrina's heroic 'Can Man'; Hancock to write, direct (HW)

By R. Kinsey Lowe

One of the memorable hometown heroes of Hurricane Katrina is getting the Hollywood treatment, courtesy of Will Smith and Sony Pictures.

Smith's Overbrook Entertainment and Sony have secured the rights to the story of John Keller, an ex-marine who rescued 244 of his neighbors at the American Can Company apartment building where they became stranded during the storm, according to Variety and the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

When the levees broke, the five-story American Can was engulfed in 11 feet of water, and Keller, being a take-charge kind of guy, fended off looters and saw to the safety of his neighbors, many of them elderly or handicapped.

John Lee Hancock ("The Rookie," "The Alamo") has been recruited to write and direct. A spec script by Adetoro Makinde purchased by Sony will serve as a starting point for Hancock's draft, Variety said.

Nicknamed "The Can Man," Keller has said he never intended to be a hero but was worried about his neighbors.

It's expected that Smith will play Keller in the movie, according to Overbrook executive Jeff Sommerville.

For Keller, "It puts a knot in my throat," he told the Times-Picayune from his apartment a the American Can Company, where he still lives.

"I wasn't in it for the money," he said. "But I was able to affect so many people. It wasn't just the people I got out of the building but everybody who valued those people, too."

At least some of the movie will be shot in New Orleans, Somerville said, and Keller said he has been promised a part in it.

"When I came back after Katrina and talked to the old peole I had saved, they all said God was going to bless me, I'm going to receive my blessing," Keller told the newspaper. "Well, I guess this is it."