Ben Affleck
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Ben Affleck worked hard to earn his way into becoming a major Hollywood filmmaker, actor, and producer. Even with the type of pull Affleck surely has, a request from Michael Jordan was heeded ahead of him getting the blessing to put out the film, Air.
Ben Affleck shared behind-the-scenes details of Air during the film’s debut at SXSW in Austin, Texas this past weekend. Per Variety, Affleck shared at the event that Jordan had a number of suggestions that Affleck heeded but the most notable one was asking that Viola Davis play Deloris Jordan, Air Jordan’s mother.
From Variety:
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“I got the script and then had the chance again to talk to Michael. Michael Jordan, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the most intimidating, impressive men you’ll ever see in your life,” Affleck said. “He told me about [his] father. And then he talked about his mother. It was the first time I saw this look cross his face. It was a look of reverence, of awe, of love, and gratitude, and innocence. He said, ‘None of this would have ever happened without my mother.’ I said, ‘Who would you like to play your mom?’ He said, ‘Well, it has to be Viola Davis.”
The outlet adds that Ben Affleck brought out the award-winning Davis for a brief moment ahead of the airing of the film in full.
Air comes to the theaters on April 5, 2023.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
To many fanboys, Ben Affleck had the best iteration of The Dark Knight in Zack Snyder’s Batman V. Superman and The Justice League, but if you ask the Bawsten actor himself, he didn’t care much for the experience he had in the DC Universe and doesn’t plan on returning anytime soon.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar winner explained that though the DC films he was a part of have established a cult following years after their release, he felt that the Justice League “stories became somewhat repetitive to me and less interesting.” After that debacle that Joss Whedon put together on the fly, we can’t blame Ben for feeling that way. The Zack Snyder cut of the film was superior though not exactly mind-blowing.
Continuing to explain his beef with Whedon’s remixed version of The Justice League, Ben said “You could teach a seminar on all the reasons why this is how not to do it. Ranging from production to bad decisions to horrible personal tragedy, and just ending with the most monstrous taste in my mouth. The genius, and the silver lining, is that Zack Snyder eventually went to AT&T and was like, “Look, I can get you four hours of content.” And it’s principally just all the slow motion that he shot in black-and-white. And one day of shooting with me and him. He was like, “Do you want to come shoot in my backyard?” I was like, “I think there are unions, Zack. I think we have to make a deal.” But I went and did it. And now [Zack Snyder’s Justice League] is my highest-rated movie on IMDb.”
Keep in mind Zack only got the chance to finish the film he started because of years of fan support and demands that he right the wrong that Whedon gave us after taking over the Justice League when Snyder stepped down due to personal reasons. The Whedon experience was so taxing on Ben that he admits that it led to him drinking too much during production and questioning whether he was content with where his career and life was at the moment.
Luckily Ben is in a better place now, but that doesn’t mean he’s down to return to the DC Universe even if it was in a directing gig for which he’s already won an Oscar in 2013’s Argo.
“I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC. Absolutely not. I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that.”
Not even in a directing capacity?! Ben must have really had a bad time being involved in those DC productions. that being said the way that James Gunn is running that ship, we doubt he’d want Ben Affleck to be a part of anything. Just sayin.’
Will you be missing Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne/Batman in the DC Universe? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: Amazon Studios / Amazon Studios
A year after it was announced that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would be making a movie behind the signing of Michael Jordan to Nike, the first trailer to Air has landed and it actually looks pretty damn interesting.
Source: Amazon Studios / Amazon Studios
Starring Ben Affleck as Nike co-founder Phil Knight and Matt Damon as Nike marketing executive, Sonny Vacarro, Air takes place in the 80’s and centers around a somewhat struggling Nike and how they went about becoming the hottest brand in the sneaker game. Looking to make the brand popular and compete with top tier sneaker lines such as Converse and Adidas, Knight tasks Vacarro with the seemingly impossible task of taking their struggling basketball division and figuring out a way to make it grow in popularity.
Looking to pull a rabbit out of a hat, Vacarro decides that a possible solution would be to sign a college basketball star to Nike and give him his own signature sneaker line. That man was none other than Michael Jordan. Hoping to convince Michael Jordan to take a chance on the Nike brand, Vacarro attempts to smooth talk Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis), his father, James Jordan (Julius Tennon), and Michael himself. Though we still don’t know who’ll be playing Michael Jordan in the film, don’t be surprised if it’s the GOAT himself as we all know CGI can de-age actors by decades nowadays.
Though we don’t actually get to see Michael’s face in the trailer, we do get to see the actor actually hold a pair of the OG Air Jordan 1 “Chicago”‘s which is all sneakerheads really want to see anyway. Watch the price for those silhouettes skyrocket once this film hits Amazon Prime on April 5th.
Check out the trailer to Air below and let us know if you’ll be checking for this in the comments section below.
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Source: Variety / Getty
One would think that a movie centering around the partnership between Nike and a then NBA rookie known as Michael Jordan would be a straight-to-streaming affair, but apparently Amazon believes in the film so much that it’s actually going to be getting a theatrical release.
According to Deadline, Air, the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon film about how Nike landed Michael Jordan in the early ’80s, will be foregoing the straight to Prime premier and will instead be released in movie theaters globally. Warner Bros. will be handling the international distribution of the film. Originally set to debut on Amazon Prime, Air will be seeing a theatrical release weeks before the film ultimately hits Amazon Prime for sneaker aficionado subscribers to indulge in.
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While Air isn’t exactly a film that people have been begging to be made or even asked for, it is one that’s peaked the interest of sneaker heads around the globe since it was announced last year. And Affleck and company have recruited some Hollywood heavyweights to partake in the production.
Air reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. The story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.
Damon plays maverick Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro and Affleck plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight with Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan, Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler and Julius Tennon as James Jordan – among others. While Damon and Affleck starred in such movies together such as Good Will Hunting and Dogma, Air reps the first time that Affleck has directed his longtime friend.
Talk about an all-star cast. Keep in mind, Michael Jordan wasn’t only reluctant to sign with Nike back in 1984, but he actually wanted to sign a sneaker deal with adidas or Converse who were more popular than Nike at the time. What a time to be alive. It took all kinds of pushing and convincing to get Michael Jordan to even meet with Nike executives about a potential deal. Luckily, it happened. And we have all kinds of Air Jordans in our closets as a result. Now we get to see how history almost wasn’t made.
Ben Affleck for one is excited to show the world what he and Matt Damon have been cooking up.
“Matt and I are very excited for audiences to see Air and proud that it’s the first release from Artists Equity. The movie was an extraordinary experience where we had the honor of working with some of the best cast and crew in the business, all of whom brought passion, persistence, and creativity to a collective effort at recreating a remarkable and aspirational story.”
“I appreciate and value Jen Salke’s faith in our ability to execute on and deliver a movie we are proud of, as well as her and Sue Kroll’s incredible ongoing support of the film. Amazon Studios, Skydance, and Mandalay were all critical to getting this done, and the film couldn’t have been made without them. We value the steps it took on each of their parts to make it happen and want to thank them. This was the best creative and personal experience of our lives and we look forward to many more like it.”
You have to wonder if they’re going to be getting their own friends and family Air Jordan exclusives when it’s all said and done. Watch them be in “Bawsten” colors or something.
Air is set to hit theaters April 5, 2023. Will you be heading to theaters to see it or will you be waiting for it to hit Amazon Prime instead? Let us know in the comments section below.
Jennifer Lopez opened up about blending families with Ben Affleck in a new interview on Monday (Jan. 16).
Appearing on the Today show to promote her upcoming rom-com Shotgun Wedding with Josh Duhamel, the superstar said, “We moved in together, the kids moved in together. So it’s been, like, a really kind of emotional transition. But at the same time, like, all your dreams coming true and it’s just been a phenomenal year. Like, my best year, I think, since my kids were born.”
J.Lo shares 14-year-old twins Max and Emme with ex-husband Marc Antony while Affleck’s three children — Violet, 18; Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, nearly 11 — come from his 10-year marriage to Jennifer Garner, which ended in 2015.
During the sit-down, Lopez revealed that her kids have recently become acquainted with her back catalog of films. “They’ve watched Maid in Manhattan and The Wedding Planner, funnily enough,” she said. “They haven’t gotten into, like, the Out of Sights or the… they saw Selena. It was kinda sweet ’cause I don’t think they realize that she passed away! And so at the end of the movie, they were like, ‘No!’ They were, like, really [terrified]. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I thought you knew!’”
Lopez also took a moment in the interview to tease her upcoming studio album, This Is Me… Now, and its connection to 2002’s This Is Me… Then and her first engagement to Affleck. “The last time Ben and I were together to this album, it’s been such a journey,” she said. “The thing that I think I’ve been wondering about my whole life is like, ‘Is love real? Does true love exist?’ It’s two people kind of coming together and saying, you know, ‘I’m gonna be here no matter what and we’re gonna get through it together.’”
Watch Lopez reminisce over Ben and their newly blended family below.
Jennifer Lopez is so in love. The singer can’t help but gush about her relationship, and opened up in a new interview on Tuesday (Nov. 29) about her renewed romance with Ben Affleck.
Affleck and Lopez got engaged for the second time in April, 20 years after their high-profile romance in the early 2000s when they became known in the press as “Bennifer.” And sitting down for a wide-ranging chat with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Lopez shared that Affleck had a special promise inscribed on her engagement ring.
“Not. Going. Anywhere.,” she said. “Because that’s how he would sign his emails when we started talking again. Like, don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
While the two superstars finally married this past August, their love story also inspired J.Lo’s upcoming ninth studio album, This Is Me… Now — a follow-up to 2002’s This Is Me… Then, which is set to be released in 2023.
“Twenty years ago, I fell in love with the love of my life and I was working on an album, and it was called This Is Me… Then,” she told Lowe. “And it was all about capturing that moment in time. I said, ‘Now the most amazing, incredible, unbelievable thing has happened.’ And the reason we’re here is because I want to capture this moment in time. ‘Cause it is even better than the first time.”
Lopez’s third album originally bowed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, becoming her third consecutive top 10 album and contained smash singles “Jenny From the Block” featuring Jadakiss and Styles, “All I Have” featuring LL Cool J and “I’m Glad.”
Watch J.Lo’s full conversation with Lowe about her new album and Affleck below.
It’s been 20 years since Jennifer Lopez unveiled her third studio album, 2002’s This Is Me… Then, much of which was inspired by her then-relationship with Ben Affleck. Now, the singer is reflecting on the album and her rekindled romance with her now-husband.
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“It is a little bit like the Twilight Zone. It doesn’t happen,” Lopez told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week. “That album, This Is Me… Then really captured a moment in time where I fell in love with the love of my life. It’s all right there on the record. I didn’t even realize what was happening and what I was doing. It was just every day going from the set to the recording studio, doing the thing, being in love, him coming into the studio, writing ‘I’m Glad,’ […] Me tweaking the lyrics with him. Every single song that we wrote there, me writing ‘Dear Ben’, it was such a special moment in time to have captured.”
As expected, the Good Will Hunting actor “loves” the album. “He knows all of the words. It’s crazy. He also was with me while I was creating it,” she shared. “You’re listening to the demos in the car. You’re listening to the mixes. ‘I wrote this today. What do you think of this?’ It was that over and over again for two years while we were together. He knows it so well and he loves it so much. He’s my biggest fan, which is awesome, and supporter. When he came back into my life again, the same thing happened where I felt so inspired and so overtaken with emotion that it was just pouring out of me.”
Lopez also shared that her 2004 breakup with Affleck was the “biggest heartbreak of my life.” “I honestly felt like I was going to die,” she said, noting that she couldn’t perform songs from This Is Me… Then because it was too painful. “It sent me on a spiral for the next 18 years where I just couldn’t get it right. But now, 20 years later, it does have a happy ending. It has the most would-never-happen-in-Hollywood ending.”
Now, the multihyphenate is gearing up to release her new album This Is Me… Now, which was inspired by her marriage and how much she has grown over the years. “I think what the message of the album is very much if you were wondering if you have, like me at times, lost hope, almost given up, don’t. Because true love does exist and some things do last forever and that’s real,” she said.
Watch the full interview below.
Jennifer Lopez subtly showed off her love for Ben Affleck in a glam social media post on Thursday.
In the carousel posted to her official Instagram page, Jenny From the Block dons a gorgeous all-white ensemble for an unnamed charity event, including a cozy sherpa coat and low-cut dress. However, the singer’s eye for romantic detail paid off with the jewelry she chose for the evening, wearing a nameplate necklace inscribed with “Jennifer Ben” and a sweet gold hummingbird charm.
Though the accessory only features her hubby’s first name, J.Lo has been open lately about the reasons she chose to legally take his famous last name after they tied the knot in Vegas last July.
“People are still going to call me Jennifer Lopez. But my legal name will be Mrs. Affleck because we’re joined together. We’re husband and wife. I’m proud of that. I don’t think that’s a problem,” she said in her recent Vogue cover story, later adding, “I just feel like it’s romantic. It still carries tradition and romance to me, and maybe I’m just that kind of girl.”
Earlier this fall, Prime Video released the trailer for Shotgun Wedding, the star’s upcoming romantic comedy co-starring Josh Dumahel, Jennifer Coolidge and Lenny Kravitz. Dropping Jan. 27, the film will be Lopez’s first flick since the premiere of her Netflix documentary Jennifer Lopez: Halftime, which tracked the run-up to her 2020 Super Bowl halftime show with Shakira.
Check out J.Lo’s necklace tribute for Affleck below.