Coming-of-age story joins Annapurna’s early release slate.

Ryan Wash

Plan B, Annapurna and MACRO are lining up a feature about the queer black debate champion Ryan Wash.

MACRO will co-finance and produce the project alongside Plan B and We’re Not Brothers Productions’ Ben Barnz.

Daniel Barnz has been brought on to the direct the untitled film and will write with Wash, who adapts his own story, and Ned Zeman. Wash will also serve as an executive producer on the project.

The film tracks the personal journey of Wash, a queer black debater from Kansas City who won the 2013 Cross Examination Association and National Debate Tournament championships and revolutionised the debate establishment itself. 

He has continued to have an impact in the arena, recently coaching the 2017 CEDA and NDT champions.

Plan B recently entered into a first-look deal with Annapurna and have Adam McKay’s biopic Cheney and an adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk with Barry Jenkins currently in pre-production.

Annapurna released its first film, Detroit, last weekend and expands the Civil Rights drama wide this week.