Ahead of its $7 million preview at next week’s Super Bowl LVII, MGM has dropped a trailer for Ben Affleck’s latest directorial effort Air.
Reuniting the Argo filmmaker with his lifelong friend and collaborator Matt Damon, this forthcoming biographical drama depicts the birth of Nike’s game-changing partnership with a certain NBA rookie and future icon, Michael Jordan, as told through the lens of maverick salesman turned Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) and Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Affleck).
Not only would MJ’s eventual signing establish Nike as a major player in sportswear and performance apparel, laying the foundation of a modern empire and altering the entire landscape as we know it in the process, but also mint His Airiness as a certified billionaire. To this day, it’s still the richest athlete endorsement deal in history.
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“People don’t know what a Nike is,” Chris Tucker as Howard White can be heard saying in the Air trailer.
“There’s nothing cool about Nike,” adds Marlon Wayans as legendary college basketball coach George Raveling.
According to earlier reports published by Deadline – and as confirmed by what we’ve seen today – Michael Jordan himself is portrayed as a “giant mythic figure” hovering above the movie and never actually seen. Instead, Sonny Vaccaro’s relentless quest to land MJ takes him to the people closest to him, in particular his powerful and dynamic mother Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis), as well as former coaches, advisors, friends, etc.
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The star-studded cast of Air also features Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler, and Julius Tennon as James Jordan.
Air has been written by Alex Covery – whose initial draft Air Jordan was actually named one of the best unproduced screenplays in the 2021 Black List – and will be jointly distributed by Amazon Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures as part of the latter’s ongoing pact with the former’s subsidiary MGM. The project in question represents the very first from Affleck and Damon’s Artist Equity.
The Air release date has been scheduled for April 5th of 2023 – check out the trailer above.
