Kyrie Irving’s “Uncle Drew” made an awesome Pepsi commercial.
Would it make an awesome movie?
At least one Hollywood development group is betting that it would, and Irving is attached to the project, reports trade industry publication Variety (hat tip to Hollywood Insider Dan Devine of Ball Don’t Lie).Sources tell Variety that Temple Hill Entertainment has acquired the feature film rights to Irving’s “Uncle Drew” Pepsi commercials. “Skiptrace” scribe Jay Longino is set to write the script and Irving is attached to reprise the role of Drew.
Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, and John Fischer will produce the film, described as a love letter to basketball. The original Pepsi Max advertisements showed Irving, in full make-up, playing a 70-plus-year-old man, Drew, who would show up to pick-up basketball games and school kids half his age, while also reminiscing about how the game used to be played...
Described as “Blues Brothers” in the pick-up basketball world, Longino’s pitch shows Drew and his old squad on the legendary Rucker Park basketball court in Harlem. Years later Drew is talked into returning to the courts to compete in a tournament and goes on a road trip to round the old squad up to play.
As long as they are talking the original Blues Brothers and not Blues Brothers 2000, we’re good.
As the hits and misses of turning Saturday Night Live skits into movies has shown over the years, turning short skits and bits into successful full-length movies succeeds less than the average Irving drive to the basket. But it has the potential to be great.
It may be a few years before we find out. Or six months after that when we all find out via Netflix.