Who is Sonny Vaccaro?
It was 1984 and Vaccaro, a basketball expert at Nike, hadnāt had much success recruiting top players to Nikeās basketball division. Converse had all but cornered the market with superstars like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Adidas, hyping its cool factor, was attracting the hot prospects from the draft, including the third pick ā a guard out of the University of North Carolina named Michael Jordan. Putting his career on the line, Vaccaro decided to take the biggest gamble of his life. In an unprecedented move, he wanted Nike to create a shoe designed specifically for Jordan.
āIt is an all-or-nothing gamble, but one in which he entirely believes because he absolutely knows and loves the game,ā says Matt Damon, who plays Vaccaro in the film āAIR,ā in cinemas April 19. āBut heās at a point where his career is in a precarious place and Nikeās entire basketball division is on the brink. He is risking all their jobs by pushing that agenda because heās been told Jordan really wants to go with Adidas. Their shoes are cooler, and Nike is considered a jogging shoe company that Michael doesnāt associate with basketball. Nobody really does.
Watch the official trailer of āAIRā below:
āThat was one of the things that was so surprising to me when I read the script,ā Damon continues, ābecause I always had this idea of Nike as this absolute powerhouse in the basketball shoe market, which they are now. But when you catch them at the beginning of this story, they are the clear underdogsā¦ One thing Sonny Vaccaro was very clear with me about was that the feelings of camaraderie, friendship and loyalty are his takeaways from that time. Thatās what we wanted to put in the movieāa story about these underdogs doing something that had never been done before.ā
Working with director Ben Affleck
Besides the inspiring story of āAIR,ā Damon relished working with his longtime buddy Ben Affleck as his director. āObviously, weāve written and produced together over the years, but getting to work with him as a director was utter joy and so creatively rewarding,ā shares Damon. āWe tend to have similar sensibilities about whatās working in a scene and what isnāt, so we had such an ease with each other.ā
Affleck also had only great things to say about his old pal. āHe is very, very gifted and it was a pleasure to direct him for the first time and discover even more about him as an actor,ā says Affleck about Damon. āI feel very lucky that my oldest friend and I are in the same line of work and get to work together. Weāre doubly blessed in that way.ā
The ticketing site for āAIRā is already live at www.airmovie.com.ph. Donāt forget to calendar your āAIRā movie date!
From award-winning director Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon, āAIRā reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nikeās fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand.
āAIRā also stars Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Marlon Wayans, with Chris Tucker and Viola Davis in a moving story that 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 sonās immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.
Affleck directed from a screenplay by Alex Convery. āAIRā is produced by Peter Guber, Jason Michael Berman, David Ellison, Jeff Robinov, Madison Ainley, Damon and Affleck.
In Philippine cinemas April 19, “AIR” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Discovery company.
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