Sheena Allen, Associated Press Terrence Howard stars as Jim Ellis, shown at the Marcus Foster Pool in Philadelphia last month, in the new film "Pride."

PHILADELPHIA -- Terrence Howard concedes that his latest film, "Pride," doesn't break any new ground in the movie genre of sports underdogs beating the odds.

But it's not supposed to.

"Pride," inspired by the true story of Pittsburgher Jim Ellis, who starts an African-American swim team in a downtrodden Philadelphia neighborhood, has one point and one purpose only, said Howard:

"To inspire people to recognize the heroes in their communities and in their households."

Howard, who portrays Ellis in the film, was in Philadelphia last month for the film's premiere, along with Ellis and co-stars Bernie Mac, Tom Arnold and Evan Ross.

The 38-year-old actor is also the film's executive producer. As such, the quality of the movie had added importance to him. "We wanted to find a way to make a splash, to make a difference, to inspire," Howard said. "Anybody can make money, very few people can make a difference."

Since his Oscar-nominated turn as DJ, the pimp with a dream, in "Hustle & Flow" and his critically acclaimed performance in 2005 Best Picture winner "Crash," Howard has joined that still-short list of African-American actors in great demand.

He recently finished filming the Warner Bros. thriller "The Brave One" with Jodie Foster and "The Hunting Party" with Richard Gere and Jesse Eisenberg. Currently, he's filming "Iron Man" opposite Robert Downey Jr.

Howard, who knew how to swim but not at this level, said he spent a great deal of time training for the film, three weeks of it with Ellis.

"I figured the best way to learn about him was to have him teach me about life," Howard said.

Ellis, a Westinghouse High School grad and member of the swim team there, founded the Philadelphia Department of Recreation swim team in 1971 at the Marcus Foster Recreation Center in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia.

Today, it is nationally recognized and is considered the nation's best African-American team.

Ellis, who teaches geometry at the High School of International Affairs, said one of the people who helped inspire him growing up was his swim coach, Ed Fleming.

"First, because he was an African-American male and he was somebody you could look up to, someone you could trust," Ellis said.

Even though his story of introducing inner-city youngsters to a sport very few African-Americans participate in and turning them into champions seemed tailor-made for the screen, Ellis didn't believe so at first.

He recalls screenwriter Kevin M. Smith, a University of Pittsburgh grad, visiting him in Philadelphia, and the subsequent scripts that were sent. "I read a few pages, threw it away," Ellis said. "I really wasn't interested."

When the last script came with a contract attached, Ellis decided he better start taking things seriously. He met with Smith's partners and eventually flew to Los Angeles to meet executive producer Michael Paseornek.

"We talked about the script changes I felt needed to be made," Ellis said. "I didn't want to be portrayed as a buffoon."

Ellis, who started the swim team to develop Olympic-level swimmers, didn't want to damage a reputation that he'd spent 30 years building in the community. Nor did he want the young swimmers in the film portrayed as typical cinema inner-city toughs or as boyz in the pool.

That aspect of the film was important to Howard as well.

"I wanted to make sure we didn't perpetuate any stereotypes," Howard said. "These were kids with drive. They just didn't have any direction."

Ellis, the guy who gave it to them, is still coaching, still teaching youngsters to cut through resistance to reach their goals.

While some of that resistance came in the form of racism, the film's opening scene of an ugly incident at a college swim meet didn't actually happen.

When his teams did encounter racism in real life, "we dealt with it immediately," he said, "and moved on."