K.T Simpson
“Good Will Hunting” comrades Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are reuniting for a drama that Affleck will helm for Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures, says Deadline.
Both Affleck and Damon will appear in the as-yet-untitled sports marketing film which follows the “story of how Sonny Vaccaro (Damon), a maverick sneaker salesman, led a fledgling running shoe company called Nike in its pursuit of the most transformative athlete in the history of sports: Michael Jordan. Affleck will portray Nike co-founder Phil Knight in the story surrounding Nike’s longshot effort to sign Jordan to its shoe company in the mid-’80s, an endorsement that seemed impossible at the time but which would become the most significant relationship between an athletic brand and an athlete and launched the global, multibillion-dollar contemporary sneaker industry.
Sonny’s relentless quest to sign Jordan to what was then the third-place shoe company takes him to Jordan’s parents, and in particular his powerful, dynamic mother, as well as to former coaches, advisors, friends and those close to Michael. Jordan himself is a giant mythic figure hovering above the movie and never seen, while Sonny tries to reach him by gaining access to those close to him and around him.”
Alex Convery wrote the original script, which Damon and Affleck are doing a new pass on.
