Maniac Magee is a television film made for the Nickelodeon network, based on the novel of the same name by Jerry Spinelli. The story follows twelve-year-old Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee, an orphaned runaway with many extraordinary and athletic talents, who arrives in a town divided with racial conflict. Developed as early as in 1999, the film was filmed in 2001 and broadcast on Nickelodeon on February 23, 2003. The teleplay was a finalist for a Humanitas Award in the Children's Live Action program category in 2003, though the award was ultimately won by A Ring of Endless Light. Plot In the present, an adult female character (played by Jada Pinkett Smith) arrives at a public park in Two Mills, Pennsylvania where she goes to watch some kids jumping rope together at a park. She serves as the narrator of the movie and goes to tell the story of Maniac Magee who changed the town of Two Mills forever. Two decades earlier, the parents of twelve-year-old Jeffrey Lionel Magee (Michael Angarano) are killed by a drunk driver. To avoid being put in an orphanage, Jeffrey runs out of town and across the country, developing supernatural-like qualities to run at a very fast speed. After nearly a year of running, he arrives in the town of Two Mills, where racial tensions are extremely strong. Hector Street, the main street located in the middle of the town, divides Two Mills by race: blacks on East End, whites on West End. Jeffrey is confused by the racial biases and first crosses over on the East End where the black people stare at him. He is amazed by a giant ball of twine located outside of a pizza place called "Cobble's Corner" owned by an elderly black man, Mr. Cobble (Garrett Morris). Mr. Cobble comes out and tells Jeffrey to go back "to his own side". Jeffrey does so and comes across a kid's baseball game where he comes across a white teenager, Big John McNab (Adam Hendershott), a pitcher known for striking out many kids with his fast throw. His younger brothers, Russell and Piper (Brandon de Paul and Isaiah Griffin), cheer him on from behind the gate. Jeffrey skips a line of kids waiting to bat to take on Big John and manages to strike the ball so fast it disintegrates in the air. After being humiliated further, Big John tells his friends