Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s next film will also introduce their bold new vision of profit-sharing in the streaming era.
We’ve known since last April that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are set to renew their onscreen partnership once more in Air, the movie that will chart the story of how Nike secured the services of basketball legend, Michael Jordan. The commercial coup would prove to be one of the shrewdest partnerships in marketing history and launched Nike Air Jordan, a brand that is still going like gangbusters to this very day.
It’s usually a treat to see the pair onscreen, with their last outing being 2021’s The Last Duel. Now we have a release date for Air, with news emerging that the film will arrive in cinemas for a short engagement before hitting Amazon’s Prime Video service. That’s certainly the plan in the US, and a deal has been struck with Warner Bros for cinematic release in the UK.
Ben Affleck will portray co-founder Phil Knight in the story surrounding Nike’s efforts to sign Jordan to its shoe company in the mid-’80s. Meanwhile, Damon will play ‘Sonny Vaccaro, ‘a maverick shoe salesman’ who is chasing the Jordan deal.’
Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, Tom Papa and Julius Tennon will all feature too.
Affleck will direct the film and both he and Damon will produce as part of their new Actor’s Equity label. This interesting endeavour by the duo has been created with the intention of creating a more equitable profit split for those who work ‘under the line’ on film productions, especially in an era where according to Affleck, streamers have largely quashed the back-end deal and made it more difficult for creatives to prosper financially from filmmaking.
Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures are all involved and we’ll be able to see how the duo’s bold new venture turns out when Air releases in April.
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