LeBron James is often regarded in dramatic tones. And now, he'll have the opportunity to show just how dramatic he can be. Sorry, this story requires that I lead with the most obnoxiously cliche sentence possible. It's an unwritten law of sports writing.
On the heels of More Than a Game, a documentary about his high school yearsFantasy Basketball Camp from Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, Variety reports.
The movie has Brian Grazer attached to produce. Grazer has compared his approach ton the project to his production work on the Eminem vehicle 8 Mile. Because "gritty film about Detroit's poor white lifestyle blending with the underground hip-hop scene" lends itself well for a transition to "comedy about five guys from different backgrounds who come to Vegas to live out their fantasy by attending the LeBron James Adult Basketball Camp."
The plot details are sketchy at this point, but apparently it revolves around the campers pulling LeBron into their personal lives. The premise sounds like "City Slickers" meets "Celtic Pride," although hopefully not in a way that makes us want to gouge our eyes out. A commenter points out that Grazer is a producing legend, having contributed to Sports Night, Inside Man, and Arrested Development, favorites of mine among his production list which is about a thousand miles long. Considering the guy's track record, you have to believe he has a pretty good grip on the project (please ignore the rash of late-career Eddie Murphy flicks).
This is a pretty big step for LeBron as he tries to rehab his image after the handshakegate and MVPshirtgate and dunkgate and all the other gates he's been in this summer. It also illustrates that as a cultural icon, LeBron really has arrived. To transcend to mainstream media in a different format is to venture into territory only few have accessed. I for one am hoping we see LeBron James, Adrian Peterson, and Albert Pujols into a ProStars 2010 TV show.
If you're looking for a basketball angle, riddle me this: the article says that producers are hoping to shoot next summer. Well, assuming the Cavaliers make it at least as far as the Eastern Conference Finals in late May, that gives LeBron a very tight window to film before the 2010 international competition begins. It's likely that this won't interfere in the slightest, but one might want to keep an eye on that as we progress.
(HT: Dark Horizons) hitting theaters next month, James is now set to star in another movie titled
Filed Under: Cavaliers
Source: MATT MOORE
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment