The trailer of Matt Damon-Ben Affleck-starrer AIR promises to tell the behind-the-scenes story of basketball legend Michael Jordan’s famous partnership with sportswear company Nike.
Released by Amazon Prime Video on Thursday late evening, the two-minute-26-second-long trailer takes us back to 1984 when Michael Jordan was a relatively unknown basketball talent. In the beginning, we get introduced to Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) and executive Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Demon) as they desperately try to make it big with basketball.
Vaccaro is tasked to grow the company’s basketball division. He spots a rookie basketball player — Jordan — and convinces his boss to sign a contract with that young talent. He even goes that extra mile to convince the player’s parents and eventually launches the now-iconic shoe line Air Jordan. However, the character of Michael Jordan doesn’t feature in the trailer.
Watch the trailer here:
Directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery, the film is the first production of Affleck and Damon’s new company, Artists Equity. It features Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Julius Tennon as James Jordan and Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler.
Apart from Affleck and Damon, the film is produced by Peter Guber, Jason Michael Berman, Jeff Robinov, Madison Ainley and David Ellison.
AIR will hit the theatres on April 5 and will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video on a later date that has not been revealed yet.
Damon and Affleck first became inextricably linked when they teamed up to write and star in Gus Van Sant’s Oscar-winning 1997 drama Good Will Hunting. The duo won the Best screenplay Oscar for the film. They were also seen together on the screen in Ridley Scott’s 2021 historical action drama The Last Duel.
The first Air Jordan shoe was created for Michael Jordan for his rookie season at Chicago Bulls in late 1984. Since then, Nike has produced Air Jordans yearly as the shoe line has become a fashion accessory.
