Matt Damon, Ben Affleck.Photo: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty
Ben AffleckandMatt Damonare reportedly teaming up on the big screen once again!
Affleck, who is slated to play Nike co-founder Phil Knight, has been tapped to direct the film while Damon will play former Nike executive Sonny Vaccarro, who helped the third-ranked show company land its massive deal with the NBA superstar in the 1980s.
The Hollywood Reporterwas first to report the collaboration on Tuesday. Amazon Studios and Skydance Sports are currently working to finalize their deal, per the report.
Matt Damon, Ben Affleck.Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty
The untitled Amazon film is based on the true story of Vaccarro’s efforts to strike a shoe deal with Jordan amid the athlete’s illustrious NBA career. However, Jordan himself will not be portrayed in the film and will remain as an unseen character.
Weinbach previously worked with Mandalay chairman Peter Guber as a producer on ESPN’s limited seriesThe Last Dance, which detailed Michael Jordan’s career and his success with the Chicago Bulls.
Affleck and Damon “are now reworking the script” for the untitled film, according to the report.
Michael Kovac/WireImage
Previously, Affleck and Damon have worked together on scripts for films such as their 1997 hit filmGood Will Huntingand their recent filmThe Last Duel. The pairrevealed in October 2021that they took a break from writing together afterGood Will Hunting, which took them quite a while to do.
“Good Will Huntingtook us so long. We were like unemployed, broke guys. It took us forever to write that screenplay. I think we wrote thousands and thousands of pages,” Damon explained onThe Jimmy Kimmel Show. “We didn’t really know what we were doing and I think that kind of put us off writing again because we never thought we’d have the time.”
“I think we found writing [The Last Duel] that we actually kind of picked up structure over the last 25 years of making movies so it went a lot faster,” he added, before praising the help from screenwriter Nicole Holofcener. “And then we also made the really good decision of getting a great writer to come with us.”
source: people.com
