Hollywood stars and longtime friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are reteaming for a sports marketing film that will narrate the story of Nike, the footwear manufacturing company.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Damon will play Sonny Vaccaro, the legendary sneaker salesman who memorably signed basketball great Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal in the initial days of Nike.
Affleck will star as Nike co-founder Phil Knight in the story surrounding the company's longshot effort to sign Jordan 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.
Affleck will also direct the as-yet-untitled film. His previous directing credits include ‘Gone Baby Gone’, ‘The Town’, best picture Oscar winner ‘Argo’ and ‘Live By Night’.
Alex Convery wrote the original script, titled 'Air Jordan', which was named to the 2021 Black List of the best-unproduced screenplays. The movie is produced by Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures.
Mandalay brought the script to Skydance Sports president Jon Weinbach, who then secured Vaccarro's life rights. Affleck and Damon are doing a new pass on the script and will produce it.
The project marks the first instance where Affleck will direct Damon. The duo co-wrote and starred together in Gus Van Sant's 1997 film ‘Good Will Hunting’, which won them an Academy Award for best original screenplay.
They recently shared screen space in Ridley Scott's period drama ‘The Last Duel’, which was released last year.
[With Inputs From PTI]
