Kyrie Irving is reportedly getting a movie role as Uncle Drew
Kyrie Irving is having himself one hell of a year. First he hit one of the biggest shots in NBA history to win the NBA Finals. Then he received the second highest amount of votes among Eastern Conference All-Stars. And now it looks like he’s about to get a movie based on his very popular Uncle Drew character from the Pepsi commercials, which won the hearts of basketball fans everywhere.
As the popularity of Uncle Drew grew, Pepsi brought in more NBA players to become members of Irving’s crew that would go out and destroy young pickup ball players while dressed as old men bemoaning the way the game is now played. Anyone who has ever been on Twitter and seen a random flurry of “THAT’S A POCKET PASS! THAT’S A POCKET PASS!” are fans of the commercial referencing one of Irving’s best works.
The popularity of the commercials grew — Chapter 1 has nearly 48 million views on YouTube — and it reportedly gained the attention of Temple Hill Entertainment. From Variety:
"“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.”"
It’s cool to see what originally started off as just a silly commercial turn into such a cult following among basketball fans, but it also feels so perfect. There is an entire sub culture of basketball that exists in the pickup game, and a movie about Uncle Drew has the potential to really take advantage of that and be the love letter basketball fans are hoping for.
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However, this doesn’t quell all the fears related to making a movie. It’s much easier to make a quick short than it is to write a full length film and it can’t be just a group of NBA players dressed up in old clothing. It needs to have a good plot line. Luckily, the producers seem to have an idea of what they’re going for.
"“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.”"
Blues Brothers is a hysterical movie with a lot of quotable lines. If an Uncle Drew movie can even capture half of that feeling while being something basketball fans enjoy, this could turn into a cult classic. We’ll have to wait on more information to come out before making any final thoughts, but right now a general feeling of cautious optimism surrounds the film.
Read the full press release about the Uncle Drew movie at Variety. Hopefully it will get far enough in the process to see some actual potential.