For those of us who don’t know our Nike basketball shoe history, the trailer for Ben Affleck’s Air pretty much lays out the entire story. Affleck stars in and directs a retelling of the true story of how Nike’s decision to take a chance on Michael Jordan changed the company’s fortune.
The trailer arrived online prior to the film’s Super Bowl spot and was accompanied by six new photos.
Affleck stars as Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his offscreen BFF Matt Damon, who he’s never directed in a feature film up until Air, plays Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro (the man who made it all happen.) The cast also includes Viola Davis as Michael Jordan’s mom, Deloris Jordan. Jason Bateman plays Rob Strasser, Chris Messina is David Falk, Marlon Wayans is George Raveling, Chris Tucker is Howard White, Matthew Maher is Peter Moore, Gustaf Skarsgård is Horst Dassler, and Julius Tennon is James Jordan.
Alex Convery wrote the screenplay and Affleck, Damon, David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold, Jon Weinbach, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Madison Ainley, Jeff Robinov, Peter Guber, and Jason Michael Berman produced.
Amazon Studios will release Air in theaters on April 5, 2023.
The Plot:
From award-winning director Ben Affleck, AIR reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.
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