Subway Scholar...

``Straight Out of Brooklyn'' director Matty Rich has been hired to rewrite and direct ``Subway Scholar,'' a fact-based story for Showtime Family that will star Pam Grier, and will be exec-produced by Whitney Houston and Debra Martin Chase.

Like Rich, the protagonist hails from the tough streets of Brooklyn. Camara Barret, a high schooler living comfortably in Jamaica with his grandparents is brought to the United States by his mother and stepfather, smack into a rough Brooklyn neighborhood.

He has such a hard time with his abusive folks that they kick him out. Living on the street and in homeless shelters and mentored by a caring principal (Grier), the boy not only becomes student body president and valedictorian, he gets a scholarship to Cornell.

The film was originally written by Rama Stagner. Rich will likely get into production by fall while waiting to see what HBO does with the Tupac Shakur biopic he scripted and expects to direct.

NEWSFILE: 11 JUNE 1999