Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, and they’re hoping that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will soon be wearing a laurel wreath in her honor. “They” are Amazon Studios and Skydance Sports, who are reportedly close to slam-dunking a deal for a new feature film about former Nike bigwig Sonny Vaccarro and his quest to sign up Michael Jordan as a spokesperson. Affleck is slated to wear several hats—or shoes—in the production: writer, director, producer, while also portraying the role of Nike’s co-founder, Phil Knight. Damon has been tapped to play the part of Vaccarro and will also write and produce. Mandalay Pictures will also be a producer.
Vaccarro’s crusade unfolded in the 1980s when Jordan was still a rising star on the basketball courts and Nike was a third-place contender in the lucrative sneaker wars. The upcoming film will focus on his effort to snag the Jordan endorsement, which has since been regarded as one of the most lucrative athlete-branding match in sports history.
It’s expected that a key plot line will involve Vaccarro’s interactions with Michael Jordan’s strong-willed mother, Deloris Peoples Jordan.
Here’s the brief backstory: Mandalay acquired Air Jordan, a screenplay written by Alex Convery, which it pitched to Jon Weinbach at Skydance Sports. The upcoming film will be Skydance’s first major sports feature.
This will not be the first time the Jordan story has been told, however.
His exploits were the subject of The Last Dance, an Emmy-winning TV series. In 2015, ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary Sole Man featured the Vaccarro connection.
Affleck and Damon are no strangers to the silver screen: they won an Oscar for the script for Good Will Hunting, in which both appeared. They also played together in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel. Both Affleck and Damon are listed as producers of the biblical film Apostle Paul starring Hugh Jackman.