Will Smith to Produce Movie About Michael Jordan’s Detour Into Baseball

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The 2017 Black List was announced this morning, and with it came the news that Will Smith is set to produce a movie about Michael Jordan’s short-lived baseball career.

In THE PROSPECT, written by Ben Epstein, Michael Jordan uses a year as a baseball prospect to find himself after his father’s death. James R. Jordan Sr. was murdered by two men on the side of the highway in July 1993. In February 1994, four months after the first of his three retirements from the NBA, Michael Jordan signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox.

Smith will produce via his Overbrook Entertainment banner along with Andrew Lazar (American Sniper) of Mad Chance Productions. It’s unlikely the 49-year-old Smith would play Jordan, who was 31 years old when he took the field.

Epstein previously wrote You Get Me, a Netflix thriller starring Bella Thorne and Halston Sage. The Prospect received seven votes on the Black List, which chronicles the best unproduced screenplays each year.

Epstein is represented by Think Tank Management and Production as well as CAA, which likely got the well-regarded script into Smith’s hands, since the agency represents the Bright star, too.

 Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief