Tag: Matt Damon

The Nike Air Jordan film from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon is receiving tons of early praise

Ben Affleck’s sports drama Air is getting great early notices out of South by Southwest.

The upcoming sports drama Air had its world premiere at South by Southwest this weekend, and the early reactions are incredibly encouraging.

The dramatized telling of how Nike landed Michael Jordan for the legendary Air Jordan shoe deal comes from actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck, who directs and plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight in the project.

Affleck’s longtime collaborator and buddy Matt Damon plays Nike employee Sonny Vaccaro, who worked to get Jordan on board for the shoe deal that changed both of their lives.

Affleck showed the film at the Austin, Texas, film festival on Saturday, and the early returns are quite encouraging. Affleck and the Air team got a standing ovation from the SXSW crowd.

Affleck seemed to really hype up the importance of the film premiere in the grand scheme of his career.

In his review, Variety critic Peter Debruge called it “this generation’s Jerry Maguire.”

More reactions praised the cast, Affleck’s direction and the film’s uplifting message.

If you’re excited to check out Air, it’ll hit theaters nationwide on April 5.

Michael Jordan required Ben Affleck to cast this Oscar winner to play his mom in Air

Michael Jordan wanted this Oscar winner to play his mom in the upcoming sports drama Air.

While meeting with NBA legend Michael Jordan ahead of making the upcoming sports drama Air, actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck got a few requests from the basketball legend.

As he premiered the film at South by Southwest this weekend, Affleck talked about what Jordan had hoped to see in the dramatized telling of the Nike shoe deal that changed his and the company’s lives forever.

Via Variety, Affleck shared that Jordan wanted to see Howard White in the film, who is the vice president of sports marketing for the Jordan Brand. Affleck said the casting opportunity gave him a chance to work with actor Chris Tucker, who appears as White in Air.

Jordan also had a specific casting request for who would portray his mother, Deloris Jordan. The Chicago Bulls great told Affleck he wanted Oscar winner Viola Davis to play the part.

“I got the script and then had the chance again to talk to Michael. Michael Jordan, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the most intimidating, impressive men you’ll ever see in your life,” Affleck said (via Variety). “He told me about is father. And then he talked about his mother. It was the first time I saw this look cross his face. It was a look of reverence, of awe, of love, and gratitude, and innocence. He said, ‘None of this would have ever happened without my mother.’ I said, ‘Who would you like to play your mom?’ He said, ‘Well, it has to be Viola Davis.”

Jordan got his wish, as Davis indeed appears in the film as his mother. Affleck had a very apt comparison as to what it meant to cast Davis in the project.

“That’s like saying, ‘Can I play basketball on your court?’ ‘Yeah, if you get Michael Jordan.’ “Viola Davis is the best actor I’ve ever seen,” Affleck continued. “This is a hard business. It’s hard to know if you’re successful. It’s hard to know if you’ve accomplished something. But honest to God, I always felt that if i was a director one day, and I had Viola Davis in a movie, that would really be something. That would mean the world to me. And it does.”

Affleck co-stars in Air as Nike co-founder Phil Knight, while his longtime collaborator and friend Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, who spearheaded the effort at Nike to bring Jordan aboard for a shoe line.

The film opens on April 5 nationwide.

Why Michael Jordan isn’t in the trailer for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Nike film ‘Air’

The movie “Air” is all about Michael Jordan’s deal with Nike. So why isn’t MJ in the film?

It seems almost counterintuitive to make a movie about the greatest sneaker deal in sports history, featuring the most marketable player in sports history, and leave that athlete almost entirely out of the script.

So you’re going to have to trust Ben Affleck and Matt Damon when it comes to their new Nike biopic “Air”. The film focuses on the quest to sign a rookie Michael Jordan to what was then a third-place company in the basketball market.

Though the trailer released on Thursday shows Viola Davis and Julius Tennon portraying Jordan’s parents, the NBA legend won’t make an appearance on screen. Not a cameo nor an actor portrayal. And that’s by design.

 

Affleck and Damon—who reworked a script originally penned by Alex Convery—are focusing less on Jordan and more on Nike execs Phil Knight (played by Affleck) and Sonny Vaccarro (Damon) as they work to build the company’s basketball brand.

Per The Hollywood Reporter:

The story will focus on Vaccaro’s relentless quest to sign Jordan to what was then the third-place shoe company, a journey that took him to Jordan’s parents, and in particular his powerful, dynamic mother, as well as to former coaches, advisers and friends. Jordan will be a mythic figure hovering above the movie and never seen, even as Vaccaro tries to reach him by gaining access to those close to him.

Jordan isn’t listed in any credits, so if there is a cameo the filmmakers are keeping it tightly under wraps. Certainly there’s enough star power attached to the project to interest Jordan, but considering the movie isn’t about MJ’s greatness, he likely doesn’t care to get involved.

Either way, fans of sneaker culture and basketball history should find themselves entertained by the story of a plucky little basketball division that took over the world.

WATCH: First official trailer drops for ‘AIR,’ a movie about Phil Knight and Michael Jordan

The first trailer for ‘AIR,’ a movie about Phil Knight and Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan has officially dropped.

You can feel the buzz starting to grow where moviegoers and sports lovers overlap. When you take a subject that contains arguably the greatest basketball player to ever live — Michael Jordan — and the most famous sports apparel brand in the history of the world — Nike — you’ve got sports fans excited. Then you put actors like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, and Viola Davis on the big screen to depict that subject matter?

Now you’ve got a movie.

The first official trailer for “AIR” came out on Thursday morning. It is a movie directed by Ben Affleck, depicting the journey that Nike co-founder and Oregon Ducks legend Phil Knight — played by Affleck — went through back in the 1980s when trying to get his company off the ground by creating a shoe-line around Michael Jordan.

The creation of the Air Jordan came about with the help of Sonny Vaccaro, who is played by Matt Damon.

For Oregon fans and sneakerheads who have read the book Shoe Dog, written by Knight, they know this story well. But soon a much larger group of people will be familiar with the improbable events that took place, creating the brand that is Nike, and helping build the legend that is Michael Jordan.

The movie is set to release on April 5, 2023.

[listicle id=38773]

Details released for Ben Affleck’s ‘AIR,’ a movie about Oregon legend Phil Knight

A new movie starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will reportedly come out in April, detailing Oregon legend Phil Knight’s creation of Nike.

Oregon Ducks’ legend Phil Knight is coming to a big screen near you this spring.

On Monday, it was announced that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are releasing a new move titled “AIR” which depicts the beginning of Nike, and Knight’s pursuit of NBA legend Michael Jordan in the 1980s.

Affleck, a two-time Oscar Award winner, will be portraying a young Knight, while Damon, another Oscar Award winner, will portray Sonny Vaccaro, one of the driving forces in creation of Air Jordan.

Viola Davis and Jason Bateman will also star in the movie, per Front Office Sports.

The movie is reportedly being released by Amazon.

Seeing Knight portrayed on the big screen isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, most recently in the HBO series ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,’ Knight was portrayed once again in the race to land Magic Johnson to a sneaker contract early in his career as well.

Tyson Alger, with the i5 Corridor, interviewed the actor who played Knight, Olli Haaskivi, about playing the sports apparel giant.

[mm-video type=video id=01gqg9tj9mmj1yr5nr6h playlist_id=01f27mq9z7hjgk6vc6 player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gqg9tj9mmj1yr5nr6h/01gqg9tj9mmj1yr5nr6h-a6f8529006faae0786f8b071bf45168c.jpg]

[listicle id=38053]

Ben Affleck, Matt Damon are making a movie about Nike execs Phil Knight, Sonny Vaccarro

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are bringing their heads together once more, this time for a forthcoming movie about Nike.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are bringing their heads together once more, this time for a forthcoming movie about Nike.

For this upcoming project, Affleck portrays Nike co-founder Phil Knight, while Damon will play former Nike exec Sonny Vaccarro. The movie will tell the story of how Nike was able to land Michael Jordan as their marquee endorser in the 1980s.

Knight and Vaccarro both played instrumental roles in paving the way for the modern sneaker landscape in the NBA, perhaps most notably in the decision to give Jordan his own signature line of shoes.

Of course, many are accustomed to seeing Affleck and Damon together.

For their collaborative efforts on Good Will Hunting, the two stars won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 1997. They also appeared alongside one another in Dogma (1999), Chasing Amy (1997) and School Ties (1992), as well as Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (2000).

Affleck and Damon have since worked together on The Last Duel (2021).

However, the upcoming project with Nike will make the first time that Affleck will direct Damon in a film role. Affleck is set to direct, write, co-star and produce this project. Damon will star, write and also produce.

Damon and Affleck are also expected to collaborate on a forthcoming biblical film, The Apostle Paul, which was first announced in 2015.

[mm-video type=video id=01fq2e2tjk445v0e88dm playlist_id=none player_id=01evcfkb10bw5a3nky image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fq2e2tjk445v0e88dm/01fq2e2tjk445v0e88dm-f33183efd089ee5b1a0b7674174b540c.jpg]

[listicle id=1864826]

Ben Affleck as Nike co-founder Phil Knight? Yep, it’s happening…

Nike co-founder and Oregon legend Phil Knight will be heading to the big screen in the near future, portrayed by none other than Ben Affleck.

[jwplayer nhsTupkk]

If you’ve ever sat down to watch the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary ‘Sole Man,’ then you know that the story of Nike’s rise under co-founder Phil Knight — with the help of executive Sonny Vaccarro — is a fascinating tale of the sneaker industry in the world of sports, and how it’s transformed the world that we live in.

The story is apparently fascinating enough to make it to the silver screen in the next couple of years, with the famous duo of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck co-writing a script about Nike’s efforts to sign Michael Jordan to a shoe contract in the 1980s. It’s been announced that both will star in the film as well, with Damon playing the role of Vaccarro, and Affleck playing none other than Oregon legend Phil Knight himself.

Seeing Knight be portrayed on the big screen isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, most recently in the HBO series ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,’ Knight was portrayed once again in the race to land Magic Johnson to a sneaker contract early in his career as well.

Tyson Alger, with the i5 Corridor, interviewed the actor who played Knight, Olli Haaskivi, about playing the sports apparel giant.

“I felt really lucky when preparing for it that I couldn’t find any footage of him in 1979, at the age we meet him in the show,” Haaskivi told Alger. “There wasn’t really anyone for me to impersonate or mimic. I got to have all of this material, but I really got to use my imagination and try to — I imagine everyone feels like they’re trying to capture the essence more than doing a literal impersonation of something.”

So what will Affleck’s version of Knight look like? That’s a hard question to answer. Will it be ‘Batman’ Affleck or expletive-laced ‘Any Given Wednesday’ Affleck?

Only time will tell. When the movie is eventually released, though, we certainly will be watching.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

[mm-video type=video id=01g13vdm606w351pwp03 playlist_id=01f27mq9z7hjgk6vc6 player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g13vdm606w351pwp03/01g13vdm606w351pwp03-75a8623a61b3f3a1a31d1d0ba998fb11.jpg]

[listicle id=21382]

LeBron’s appearance on HBO’s Entourage alongside Matt Damon

Looking back at LeBron’s appearance on the HBO hit-show Entourage. In season six, episode 12 LeBron makes his cameo.

LeBron James had already hosted Saturday Night Live by the time he appeared on an episode of HBO’s hit-show, Entourage, in 2009. He had performed SNL skits on NBC with his close friend and future agent, Rich Paul. There were many classic Nike and Sprite commercials by this point as well, so LeBron and his team were no strangers to the stage. But this was a season finale episode of a mega-hit show and LeBron would make his cameo appearance alongside Matt Damon.

To this point in LeBron’s NBA career, he had played every season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He won the Eastern Conference in 2007 and led his Cavs team to the NBA Finals. There, Cleveland lost to the San Antonio Spurs in four games. LeBron would win his first of four MVP awards in the same year he appeared on Entourage. He was also a perennial All-Star who would soon be winning rings with the Miami Heat.

During the episode of Entourage that LeBron appears in, Turtle is on an emotional roller-coaster. He is trying to get over his lost love, Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In one of the most dramatic twists in the series, Turtle started dating Meadow from The Sopranos. But now, Jamie is filming a movie for 12 months overseas and thinks it’s best to break it off. Turtle is heartbroken, but determined.

Eric Murphy is chasing his ex, Sloane. He gets her to go out to eat with him during the episode. Cinematography is at its finest as Eric drives a flashy convertible alongside the ocean while plotting to win back Sloane’s love. Ari is in the midst of an agency war that has him pitted against Lloyd. Drama spends most of the episode hanging with his little bro, Hollywood superstar Vinny Chase. The Chase brothers are making their way to Italy when they bump into LeBron and Matt.

[lawrence-related id=28346]

[lawrence-related id=28232]