Amazon Studios’ first post-COVID theatrical gambit, “Air,” tells the mostly untold story of how Nike convinced a promising NBA rookie named Michael Jordan to sign with them over the market-dominating likes of Addidas and Converse. Directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon alongside a packed ensemble cast, the film also stars Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans and Chris Messina and has debuted to mostly rapturous reviews and early-bird Oscar buzz.
It’s also the feature screenwriting debut of 30-year-old Alex Convery.
Plucked from obscurity to potential fortune and glory, the Black List-nominated screenwriter experienced a Hollywood-style Cinderella story when his spec script, written in the early days of COVID as he binged ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” got snapped up by Affleck and Damon and turned into the debut feature for their aspirational Artists Equity production company.
Convery sat down with TheWrap to discuss penning a story about a shoe that’s about more than just the shoe, as well as his experiences working with a murderer’s row of talent on his first Hollywood rodeo.
Why this story?
Even though he had been recently burned from experiences writing a script about the origins of Marvel Comics only to be unable to secure the rights, he was drawn to this lesser-known historical trivia when binging ESPN’s “The Last Dance.”
“I saw a five-minute segment on the Air Jordan deal,” noted Convery. “My first instinct was that someone must have done this before, but nobody had. When you’re an unproduced screenwriter, sometimes you need a little boost in terms of what’s going to get read. One way, if only as a writing sample to get the next job, was having a script about Nike making a deal with Michael Jordan.
Even in an industry that’s aggressively turning to real-life scandals, true crime and, to quote Convery, “the untold story of X thing,” the screenwriter emphasized that it was the character of Sonny Vaccaro — played by Matt Damon — that justified the narrative.
“If I didn’t find Sonny Vaccaro,” continued Convery, “I wouldn’t have written this movie. It’s also about Deloris Jordan [Viola Davis], it’s not about the shoe. The movie goes to great lengths to argue that if any other player other than Michael Jordan had stepped into that shoe, it wouldn’t have worked out.”
What did Michael Jordan bring to the movie?
In terms of how the story and screenplay changed over the course of production, Convery praised Affleck and Damon for keeping him as an active participant on set and eventually giving him credit as the sole screenwriter despite many spoons stirring the pot.
“Ben met Michael Jordan to get his blessing. Jordan – who in the film is merely referenced and occasionally seen from behind – had ideas about who should be in the movie, in terms of characters, and what was important to him. That’s where George Raveling [Marlon Wayans] came from, and how we hired Chris Tucker [playing Howard White]. We also expanded Deloris’ role, especially in the third act, but she was always the proxy for the Jordan family.”
“Air” was never intended to be a Michael Jordan-centric biopic. However, Convery then explained that part of Jordan’s input was in making sure the film contained Black faces and voices in what is a story about a shoe company run by white executives who found fortune and glory betting on a promising young Black athlete.
“Not every part of it was my story to tell,” he stated, “so it was a big help to have, for example, Chris Tucker writing all his own dialogue or talking to Howard White and getting that first-hand account. It just made the movie that much better.”
Convery affirmed that there was plenty of improvisation onset as the actors were given free rein to ad-lib where appropriate. “Viola [Davis] improvised the best line in the movie, she just casually broke out the line about the shoe becoming important when her son steps into it.”
The picture skirts with being an underdog story about an already successful corporation, as well as being a Michael Jordan origin story told from the point-of-view of the sneaker company. However, it eventually becomes a true-life example of how capitalism was pretzeled in such a way as to benefit demographics who often fail to get their fair share.
On advice from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon …
Convery noted that the one key piece of advice he got from Affleck was about the value of “saying no more than you think you must in your career.”
“Affleck told me that he’s made great movies from great scripts, great movies from good scripts, good movies from good scripts and bad movies from good scripts. What he’s never had is a bad script turned into a good movie. is a bad script turned into a good movie.”
Fortunately, he never had to say “No” to Affleck or Damon, partially because he felt grateful to be included in the entire filmmaking process. That includes receiving sole credit for the screenplay, which Affleck explained was an act of paying it forward.
“Ben, on the last day of production pulled me aside,” Convery noted, and stated “We’re not going to arbitrate. A lot of people have done their part on the script, but it was a spec script that came from you. When we were coming up as young people in Hollywood, we had a lot of people who gave us a chance and gave us breaks and believed in us and paid it forward for us in a lot of ways. Now, we’re going to pay it back.”
On turning a movie about basketball shoes into an exciting movie …
Convery admits that there are items, such as an expense scene set in an airplane that sets up a sight gag about the origins of the Air Jordan logo, that got cut for expense and time in the surprisingly brisk 112-minute movie. That runtime also helped keep the film’s momentum from start to finish, since the audience already knew how the story was going to end.
“The journey really has to earn an ending that everyone already knows,” noted Convery. “You can’t waste time. I wrote it like it’s a heist movie. And in a heist caper [with a colorful ensemble where everyone does their part] the ticking clock is especially important.”
Convery elaborated, stating that “It’s bringing the team together with all these eccentric personalities. “How is this ever going to work?” That structure helps make it interesting, even if it’s essentially a movie about people in rooms talking.”
It was never a Michael Jordan movie
Beyond just the lucky break of Affleck and Damon discovering and relishing his punchy, rat-tat-tat screenplay, the screenwriter stated that getting Vaccaro’s blessing was both a challenge and a necessity.
“We had to assure [Vaccaro] that we were doing this movie for the right reasons. Sonny has had a lot of projects about him come close to going and falling apart. He’s been cut out of a lot of things, like “The Last Dance,” and he’s not in the basketball hall of fame, so he had his guard up.”
Convery believes that “Air” can, at the very least, give the under-the-radar sports marketing executive — who was instrumental in the O’Bannon v. NCAA lawsuit, which allowed players to be compensated — an overdue moment in the spotlight.
