Life of a King is a feature film written and directed by Jake Goldberger.
The film stars an all-star cast including Cuba Gooding Jr., Dennis Haysbert, and Lisagay Hamilton.
Based on a true story — and a still-active chess club – Life of a King had its premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival reports Entertainment Weekly .
After spending almost two decades in prison, Eugene Brown played by Cuba Gooding Jr. struggles to find a life outside of the walls of his incarceration. He finally gets a janitorial job in an inner-city Washington, D.C. high school and a chance to fix his wrongs. This is where he starts the Big Chair Chess Club and encourages the troubled teens to find purpose through learning the game.
This story is not a new one but it is very familiar to films like Freedom Writers, Take the Lead and many others that have an “outsider” teach urban youth that they can be more than thugs. Who knows, this film might be better than those two or it could join the masses of others.
Life of a King will be in theaters January 17th.