While the sports world frets over where LeBron James will decide to play basketball next season, James himself is content to move full steam ahead with fashioning himself into the biggest basketball star in history. That means starring in his own feature film and playing – you guessed it – himself. The movie is “Fantasy Basketball Camp,” and now it has a director. The Hollywood Reporter has the details:
"Fantasy Basketball Camp," the Universal-Imagine sports comedy to which the superstar athlete is attached as an actor, has gained a director in Malcolm D. Lee. Also, Peter Steinfeld has come aboard to pen a new draft…
Originally written by Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz, the story centers on five men who come to Las Vegas to live out their fantasy by attending the LeBron James Adult Basketball Camp only to end up dragging James into their various life issues.
Lee was the director of “Undercover Brother,” a movie I really liked that exactly five other people also enjoyed. Steinfeld has written “21,” “Analyze That,” and “Be Cool.” The thing about this LeBron James movie is that it clearly follows the “Space Jam” model, in which the basketball star plays himself, and is surrounded by wackiness. I guess that makes sense for James, but he’s already shown he can pull off playing actual characters. Kareem Abdul Jabbar couldn’t even act, yet he managed to play and indelible character in “Game of Death” just by putting his foot in Bruce Lee’s chest.
“Fantasy Basketball Camp” seems more like a marketing strategy than a movie, a film product designed to enhance the James brand. Which seems unnecessary, given that LeBron is already pretty famous. I’d like to see an athlete appear in a movie without it giving off the feel that the appearance is a stunt, that whole “Hey look! LeBron is in a movie!” vibe. Perhaps FBC is just the beginning for LeBron in movies. He has to know that “Space Jam” was the end for Michael Jordan in the same role.
