Air
Short description
Set in the early 1980s, this historical drama follows the effort by Nike's small basketball division to sign a rookie Michael Jordan. While company founder Phil Knight is hesitant to spend a record amount on an unproven player, employee Sonny Vaccaro believes Jordan is the key to the brand's future. Vaccaro works to secure the athlete's commitment over competing offers from Adidas, recognizing that the influence of Jordan's mother, Deloris, is essential to closing the deal. This partnership eventually led to the creation of the Air Jordan brand.
Directed by Ben Affleck, the film arrived in 2023 as his fifth feature, following Live by Night. It was produced by Affleck, Matt Damon, and Peter Guber, with a screenplay by Alex Convery. The cast includes Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Ben Affleck as Phil Knight, and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan.
Produced in the United States and Hong Kong with a budget of 80 million USD, the film earned 90 million USD at the worldwide box office. Audience reception has been positive, with a rating of 7.4/10 on IMDb from 194,000 votes and 7.3/10 on TMDB from 2,451 votes. Film critics gave the movie a slightly higher score of 7.7/10 based on 348 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- It is reliably unknown who came up with the name of the Air Jordan brand.
- Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), the designer of Air Jordan One, passed away on April 29, 2022, a month before filming began. He left Nike in 1987 and joined Adidas.
- Amazon originally planned to release the film exclusively on streaming, but it performed very well at preview screenings, and the company decided to release it theatrically.
- Matt Damon filmed with padding to make him appear heavier.
- To show faded colors at the beginning of the film (Matt Damon at the school team match), the footage was transferred to an old Beta video cassette (over 30 years old), and then the video was converted back to digital format.
- Michael Jordan did not directly participate in the making of the film, but Ben Affleck consulted with him. According to Affleck, Jordan had only two requests – that Viola Davis play his mother, and that his old friend Howard White be included in the film's plot. Affleck had always wanted to work with Chris Tucker, so he was cast as White. Moreover, Tucker himself was friends with White.
- The film's screenplay was included in the "Black List" (of unrealized screenplays with high potential) in 2021.
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