Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are an Oscar-winning pair of Hollywood. The two are back again after their box office hit, The Last Duel, this time for a true life story of Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro and will be produced by prominent production houses like Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The film will be directed and written by Ben Affleck who additionally also stars as Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, and his pal, Matt Damon will write, produce and co-star as Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. The sports drama is currently untitled and is still in the scripting stage.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the motion picture revolves around the leading shoe company, Nike’s journey to secure a deal with the basketball player, Michael Jordan. Set in the mid 1980s, the film follows salesman Sonny Vaccaro and Nike co-founder Phil Knight as they trudge and continue their longshot effort to bag an endorsement from the basketball star. In the wake of this endorsement, the relationship between Nike and Michael Jordan went down as the most lucrative and significant collaboration between an athlete and athletic brand. The deal became a driving factor behind the multi-billion dollar sneakers industry and mirrored the same for basketball as well.
The movie shows Vaccaro in his relentless search to secure a deal with the rising sports star, without actually ever meeting him. Michael Jordan never appears in the movie but is instead omniscient as Vaccaro tries to get him to sign a deal with his then third place shoe company by reaching out to his parents, especially the star’s mother, former coaches, advisors and friends.
The project is a momentous occasion as Affleck will direct a movie starring his long-time pal Damon for the first time. The twosome won an Oscar for writing the script for Good Will Hunting, which starred Damon and had Affleck in a supporting role, directed by Gus van Sant. The pair also reunited in 2021 for The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott, with Damon again starring as a main lead and Affleck in a supporting role.
