Pitch sale: “Speed Boyz”

Alcon Entertainment picks up “Speed Boyz”, drama pitch from writer Michael Schiffer:

In 1989, Schiffer’s screenplay for “Lean on Me” became a Warner Bros. drama that starred Morgan Freeman as real-life, hard-nosed New Jersey high school principal Joe Clark. Now Schiffer has sold his pitch “Speed Boyz” to Alcon Entertainment, and it concerns real-life engineer-turned-teacher Simon Hauger, who inspired a group of troubled Philadelphia high schoolers to win a competition to build an alternative-fuel vehicle.

Hauger, a math teacher, launched an unorthodox curriculum in 1998 to improve students’ performance in math and science. The kids went on to win the annual Tour de Sol — a national green car competition — where they beat teams from top universities with their electric cars.

They are now competing for the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize. All they have to do is build a really fast vehicle that gets 100 miles per gallon and cuts the standard car’s carbon emissions in half while devising a business plan that can manufacture 10,000 autos per year by 2014.

Schiffer had success with Lean On Me, so this is a case of feeding at the same trough. Studio exec: “Hey, can you get me another Lean On Me?” Done!

Schiffer is repped by Gotham Group.