‘Space Jam 2,’ starring LeBron James, might really be on the way
Turn on your nostalgia faucets and get set to drink deep, Children Of The 1990s: The long-rumored sequel to “Space Jam” might finally be taking off. Like, for real, this time.
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After years of speculation, suggestions and false starts, the movement toward some kind of follow-up or reboot of “Space Jam” — the hit 1996 film that saw Michael Jordan don a “Tune Squad” uniform to help the Looney Tunes avoid enslavement by an intergalactic theme-park owner (seriously) , that gave us “Hit ‘Em High” and “I Believe I Can Fly,” and that remains the highest-grossing basketball movie ever made — picked up steam last summer, when the production company co-founded by Cleveland Cavaliers megastar LeBron James signed a big “content creation” deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment, one month after the studio filed new trademarks on “Space Jam.”
Maverick Carter, James’ longtime friend and business partner, who serves as CEO of SpringHill Entertainment, told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com back in March that a James-led “Space Jam” project had not “been discussed in detail with Warner,” that LeBron “couldn’t even entertain that discussion until he’s finished with the Cavs this season at the earliest,” and that starting production on such a project “in James’ limited time this summer would seem virtually impossible.” All the same, SpringHill president Jamal Henderson said the project was “super on the radar,” even if there was no news to report.
Well, as of Monday, there’s some news to report, and Rebecca Ford of the Hollywood Reporter shared it:
Justin Lin and Andrew Dodge are ready to shoot some intergalactic hoops with LeBron James.
The Fast & Furious 6 and Star Trek Beyond helmer is in talks to direct Warner Bros.’ sequel Space Jam 2 while Dodge will write. […]
Sources say it’s early on the in the process but that Lin and Dodge are working on the script. Charles Ebersol is producing.
James made a successful feature-film debut last year in the hit Amy Schumer comedy “Trainwreck,” but has since focused his entertainment energies more on off-camera work with projects like “Survivor’s Remorse,” the half-hour sitcom he and Carter developed and sold to Starz; “Becoming,” a half-hour series about “the journeys of some of today’s top athletes” that he co-produced with ESPN Films for Disney XD; a prime-time game show he’s been working on with NBC; and “Uninterrupted,” the straight-to-camera Bleacher Report digital video series through which he and other athletes give fans “the uncut, unedited version right then and there of what [their] thoughts are.”
Now, though, it seems James is interested in going back in front of the camera, following in the footsteps of Michael Jordan to team with Looney Tunes more than two decades after Bill Murray reminded audiences throughout the galaxy that he doesn’t play defense. He’d made no secret of his interest in exploring that world, saying last summer that “we’re definitely missing Bugs and Daffy and Tasmanian Devil and every last one of them, so hopefully we can do some great things.”
We’re still quite a ways away from the whole gang coming to a theater near you, but having a director, a screenwriter and a star attached is also a whole lot more movement than the project’s seen in years, which ought to give fans eager to see “Space Jam 2” something substantive to hold onto, at least … and basketball stars looking for cameo spots reasons to start hitting LeBron up for a favor. Just so you know, NBA dudes: the line forms behind Blake Griffin. He called dibs.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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