Director Michael Bacall on FIRST Robotics Movie The New Cool

Director Michael Bacall on FIRST Robotics Movie The New Cool

When we got on the phone with Michael Bacall recently to talk about his science-infused script 21 Jump Street, he couldn’t help but gush about his next project: An adaptation of Neal Bascomb’s book The New Cool about Dean Kamen’s FIRST robotics competition. “It follows an underdog team through a season,” Bacall says. “I’m completely obsessed with it. I think [Kamen] founded this league is because he was so frustrated with the athlete and celebrity worship that dominates our pop culture. He wanted an alternative for kids, in high school in particular, to be able to apply these things in a social and competitive context to make it cool. It’s really refreshing and inspiring.”

In the course of researching the script, Bacall got to meet Kamen, who is one of the writer’s heroes. “Dean invented a medical technology that saved my life when I was a kid, so I feel a real connection to him and to this project,” Bacall says. “So I’m pretty excited that I’m getting to really indulge my love for science and getting to be a part of promoting that in popular culture by adapting this.”

And if the screenwriter has his way, this magazine might even play a role in his adaptation of The New Cool. “In the book one of the kids who’s on the team that Bascomb followed in 2009 is obsessed with Popular Mechanics and has stacks of it in his room,” Bacall said. “So I’m trying to fit that into the script.”

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