Movie Script About Michael Jordan and His Nike Deal Is Making Waves in Hollywood

A new Michael Jordan biopic is in the works, and the script is getting a ton of love from Hollywood. The 2021 Black List was recently released, and Air Jordan made the cut. The list was completed from "the suggestions of more than 375 film executives" who contributed the names of as many as ten film screenplays that have not started filming during the calendar year. Air Jordan made the Black List as it was mentioned at least seven times. 

According to the synopsis, Air Jordan is "The wild true story of how an upstart shoe company named Nike landed the most influential endorsement in sports history: Michael Jordan." Alex Convery wrote the screenplay, and the producers are Mandalay Pictures and Skydance Media. 

According to Forbes, Jordan signed his first deal with Nike in 1984. Since then Nike has paid Jordan an estimated $1.3 billion making it the richest endorsement deal ever. When Jordan first signed with Nike, the company paid him $250,000 upfront and gave him his sneaker line, which became a major success. 

"I never wore a Nike shoe until I signed with Nike," Jordan said in a previous interview. "I wore Converse in college, and I was a big Adidas fan. Then Nike came to me about creating my own shoe. They wanted to put my name on my shoe, and [let me] have input into the design of the shoe. I'd never heard of that before. It was a great pitch. It gave me an opportunity to learn more about the shoe industry, and they gave me an opportunity to create. I sat down with the designers and I talked to them about my personality and things that I like and things I feel people may like. We put all those thoughts into a brand, into the Jordan brand and into the shoe."

Jordan continued: "Even though Nike was not that edgy and not that stylish, but more traditional, they gave me an opportunity to expand on the more creative stuff. They controlled 80 percent of the basketball industry, but they knew, just because of consumer preferences, it would be tough to get more than 80 percent. So they created this other brand to capitalize, and it proved to be the correct way to do it."