Long time collaborators Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will team up once again as they venture into the world of sporting dramas, for a movie based on the true story of Nike’s pursuit of basketball star Michael Jordan in the ’80s. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is in the very early stages of development, and is currently untitled.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have worked together numerous times previously, both as actors and as creators behind the camera, and the pair are good friends away from their working relationship, too. They even won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for their joint efforts on the ‘90s movie Good Will Hunting.
While both actors have dallied in sports movies individually (Affleck starred in the basketball drama movie The Way Back, and Damon starred in Ford v Ferrari), this will be the first time the pair have joined forces to tackle the sporting industry. In fact, the movie will also see Ben Affleck take the director’s chair, meaning he will actually direct Damon for the first time in their long career.
The untitled project has been picked up by Amazon Studios and Skydance Sports, and will focus on the Nike executives Phil Knight and Sonny Vaccarro, who pursued Michael Jordan throughout the ’80s in order to align the Nike brand with the sporting legend.
Affleck is set to play the Nike co-founder Knight, while Damon will take on the role of marketing executive Vaccarro. The project is still in early stages of development so there isn’t much more in the way of casting or creatives at this time.
This partnership between Nike and Jordan would ultimately lead to the iconic Air Jordan sneakers which remain immensely popular to this day, as does the collaboration between the company and the former athlete.
Affleck and Damon most recently worked together on Ridley Scott’s historical epic The Last Duel, which they wrote with Nicole Holofcener.