Ben Affleck Stars In New 'AIR' Film Focused On Nike Recruiting Michael Jordan

Ben Affleck Stars In New ‘AIR’ Film Focused On Nike Recruiting Michael Jordan

February 10, 2023
Dom Challis

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have previously portrayed many people and the duo can add Phil Knight and Sonny Vaccaro to that list in their latest film AIR. The film details the story about how Nike signed Michael Jordan and changed the sportswear brand forever.

Affleck portrays Phil Knight, the billionaire co-founder of Nike while Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro who led Nike’s pursuit of signing Michael Jordan during his rookies years.

Featuring a star-studded cast of Viola Davis, Marlon Wayans, Jason Bateman, and Chris Tucker – you can find the trailer for the upcoming AIR film below.

Set in 1984, the trailer unveils very early concepts of the first Air Jordan 1 shoes, the OG Cortez and even a rough sketch of the iconic Jumpman logo in its process of being designed. 

We hear lines such as “I need the greatest basketball shoe ever made” and Michael Jordan’s mother, portrayed by Viola Davies says “a shoe is just a shoe, until my son steps into it,” setting up an exciting film that takes us along the quest and aftermath of recruiting Jordan to Nike.

It’s unclear whether Nike were involved in the development of AIR, we can assume Nike would have to clear a lot of the copyrighted imagery and fact check some of the scenes, but how involved Nike were with the film is a mystery as of yet.

AIR was first announced back in 2022 and the first trailer for the film reveals a scheduled release date of Wednesday, April 5 2023.

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