Before there was The Last Dance, there was Hoop Dreams, the stunning 1994 documentary about the fortunes of two high-school basketball players dreaming of making it big in the NBA, which is now set to be the subject of scripted drama from Master of None‘s Lena Waithe and her Hillman Grad Productions for Warner Bros. TV.
Hoop Dreams will be written by S.W.A.T.‘s Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, and mirror the real-life events that documentarian Steve James chronicled in his film by focusing on two African-American basketball players and their fledgling basketball careers. James’ original documentary was pieced together from 250 hours of footage shot over a number of years, so there is plenty material to draw inspiration from, with original subjects William Gates and Arthur Agee signing off on Waithe’s new adaptation.
Hoop Dreams might have criminally missed out on the Academy Award, but it was one of the first documentaries to break into the mainstream. For a three-hour sports doc to gross $11.8M at the domestic box-office was impressive for 1994, and its impact still reverberates in the many imitators you see occupying your browsing menu today. The impact of the film isn’t lost on Waithe, who said in a statement that “Hoop Dreams was a very important documentary in my life growing up, it was right in my own backyard. I was seeing two young Black people with dreams bigger than their backyard and watching their journeys as they also struggled and tried to understand where they fit in their families. I always knew I wanted to bring that story back because Hoop Dreams, to me, is so representative of what it means to have a dream, to be from a city that you really believe in, and you’re really proud to be from.”
The official synopsis for Waithe’s Hoop Dreams reads; The proposed series is a coming-of-age drama following two African American teenage boys in 1990s Chicago experiencing the privileges and pitfalls of being high school basketball phenoms at the height of the Jordan era, and the start of high school players turning pro. Through their friendship and rivalry, the boys must learn to empower themselves in a world that considers them commodities before they can legally drive.
If you haven’t seen Hoop Dreams, do yourself a favour and move it to the top of your must-see list, and then let us know what you think of this news by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Source – Collider