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Mike Tollin’s upcoming doc, Unraveling George will have its World Premiere at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival on August 1, with wide distribution and a series of special events planned for early 2026. Tollin directed the doc with Marlon Wayans narrating and producing the doc. Charles Barkey also will exec produce.

The doc features are Ben Affleck, Nike CEO Phil Knight, Jerry West, Ahmad Rashad, Dirk Nowitzki; Hall of Fame coaches including Pat Riley, Doc Rivers, Lefty Driesell, John Calipari, and Jay Wright.

“While George is not widely known by the public,” said Director Mike Tollin, “he has been a bit of a “Zelig” in African-American culture. He was there at Martin Luther King’s side for the monumental “I Have A Dream” speech, and actually was given the original copy of the speech by MLK Jr. He was the person most responsible for Michael Jordan going to...

Exclusive: After turning Night at the Museum into one of the most successful family film franchises of the 21st century, 21 Laps has begun development on a reimagining for 20th Century Studios, enlisting Tripper Clancy to write the script, sources tell Deadline.

While specifics as to the plot are under wraps, the film is said to be a new story set at the museum with all-new characters. Shawn Levy and Dan Levine will produce for 21 Laps, with Emily Morris overseeing the project for the company.

A frequent collaborator of 21 Laps, Clancy has also worked with the company and Netflix as co-ep of the series I Am Not Okay With This, as well as in developing Bolivar, a hybrid TV series based on the beloved children’s book with Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon.

Originating back when 20th Century Studios was 20th Century Fox, the Night at the Museum franchise...

The Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (Mvaaf) has announced the opening lineup for its 23rd annual celebration, providing a platform for Black and brown filmmakers, taking place Aug. 1-9, 2025.

Kicking off the festivities on Aug. 1 will be a screening of the sports documentary Unraveling George. Directed by Mike Tollin and narrated by Marlon Wayans, who portrayed George Raveling in 2023’s Air, the film chronicles the notable journey of the Hall of Fame basketball coach known for guiding the careers of several all-star players, including Michael Jordan. A Color of Conversation will immediately follow the screening.

That evening, The Dutchman — starring André Holland, Kate Mara, Aldis Hodge, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Zazie Beetz — will be presented. The thriller about a successful Black man who finds himself in a psychological game of cat and mouse with a mysterious white woman is based on the 1964 Obie Award-winning play by Amiri Baraka...

A national money-generating enterprise filled with energy and ideas that had defied the naysayers.

The arrival of a brash leader who thinks he has all the answers and makes bold and unilateral changes.

A rapid collapse that leaves all the principals in disbelief at how one man ruined everything.

The U.S. economic miracle of the past few years as undermined by Donald Trump? No, the Usfl football miracle of the 1980s as undermined by Donald Trump.

Long before tariffs was a word everyday Americans dropped casually, Trump was bulldozing in with another idea that had experts and insiders who never agree on anything shaking their heads. The story is told in 2009’s Small Potatoes: Who Killed the Usfl?, an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about an upstart league that had been humming along until Trump arrived as owner and thought he knew better. (He didn’t.)

After a few years of...

Today, Shonda Rhimes is known as a creative powerhouse who has served as producer, writer and director on a slew of hit television shows, such as Station 19, Bridgerton, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder. That said, Rhimes is most notably known as the producer behind the long-running hit medical procedural, Grey's Anatomy.

Grey's Anatomy premiered on March 27, 2005, and to date has over 400 episodes spread across 21 seasons, each of which Rhimes has produced. However, before Rhimes took on Grey's Anatomy, she played a creative role in several other notable productions, setting the stage for one of TV's greatest medical dramas.

Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream Details an Iconic Athlete Image via TBS

During Rhimes' early career, she spent her time working a variety of day jobs, including as an office administrator and as a counselor at a job center teaching job skills to those experiencing housing instability and mental illness.

The universe can be a pretty crummy place sometimes, so it's important to seek out every last nugget of joy or, absent something so extravagant, just a smile here and there to ward off total despair. You could argue that we don't even deserve the latter in extraordinarily crummy times such as these, and maybe this is true, but I like getting out of bed in the morning, so I'll afford myself the privilege of hope however it materializes. Did the Cleveland Cavaliers win last night? That's one foot on the floor. Did I text with some out-of-town friends I haven't personally seen in months or years? There's another. Did John Carpenter just win a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association? Oh baby, we're up and headed for that first cup.

The New Hollywood era produced more commercially successful and critically acclaimed filmmakers than the man who gave us "Halloween,...

Nickelodeon has been dishing out amazing shows since 1977, but some of its most popular and iconic series were the ones that aired during the 1990s. Old Nickelodeon shows touched on every genre, from the cartoon Rugrats to the sitcom Kenan and Kel. The Nickelodeon television channel gave fans whatever they desired in both animated and live-action formats.

The 1990s were a Golden Age for Nickelodeon, as the cable network introduced the world to several now-classic animated series alongside some unforgettable live-action shows that continue to find new fans every year. For adult fans, these '90s Nickelodeon shows remind them of a time when they would rush home from school to catch up with their favorite characters.

Updated on January 28, 2025, by Christopher Raley: Nickelodeon created a long list of must-see shows for children growing up in the 1990s. Five more nostalgic Nickelodeon shows have been added to this list, and...

A new biopic will tell the story of Anita Carmona Ruiz, the Spanish soccer player who disguised herself as a man to play the beautiful game on men’s sides. Carmona Ruiz – who was also known as Nita or Veleta – played the game in the 1920s when female participation was frowned upon. The film of the Andalusian sports star’s life is in development.

It hails from Laliga Studios, which is a joint-venture between Spain’s top soccer league and the Iberian division of production and distribution giant Banijay. It is partnering with Spanish labels Blend Studios and M Content.

The project is based on the work of author and journalist Jesús Hurtado, who uncovered the full story of Veleta in 2020, 80 years on from her death. The sporting icon played for Málaga. She died in 1940, aged 32.

“Our goal is to make a film that moves, mobilizes, and tells the whole...

Today, Prime Video announced a November 26 premiere date and released the official trailer and key art for It’s in the Game: Madden NFL. The docuseries will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

The Thanksgiving week launch honors the legacy of coach John Madden, who, as an announcer, called 20 Thanksgiving games and created new holiday traditions like the turkey leg and turducken, making him a Thanksgiving guest of football fans everywhere for two decades.

It’s one of the biggest video games of all time, a groundbreaking brand that became a worldwide phenomenon, spanning generations—but it almost never happened…

It’s in the Game: Madden NFL reveals the never-been-told story of Madden NFL, from its archaic 8-bit origins to its success as an annual must-have—against all odds. For the first time ever, EA Sports is opening its vault of rare and never-been-seen...

Boom! Amazon Prime Video has released the trailer for “It’s in the Game,” the streaming service’s docuseries about the “Madden” football video game series.

“It’s in the Game: Madden NFL” will premiere on November 26, which is also a piece of today’s news, just in time for your Thanksgiving dinner. It was John Madden the sportscaster who first introduced (and then annually reintroduced) most of America to the turducken — a chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey — each November. Madden, a former NFL player and later a coach, called 20 Thanksgiving games on TV.

The documentary will tell what Prime Video says is the “never-been-told story of ‘Madden NFL,’ from its archaic 8-bit origins to its success as an annual must have — against all odds.” The docuseries will include a treasure trove of “never-been-seen” EA Sports vault footage, “while also allowing cameras to follow along as...

All That is one of the most beloved shows from the ’90s.

The sketch comedy series, created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin, originally aired on Nickelodeon from April 1994 to October 2005, lasting ten seasons.

The series features original short comedic sketches and weekly musical guests aimed at kids and teens, and featured a ton of talented actors who went on to become superstars in their own right.

We’ve rounded up the highest earning stars of the series, and ranked them according to estimated net worth.

Click through to see who the richest alumni of All That are, ranked…...

Laliga Studios, a partnership between Banijay Iberia and Spain’s top soccer division, has finalized a deal with Little Spain, the production company run by popular Spanish recording artist C Tangana, to develop a fiction series set inside the La Liga universe. It will be the first drama production developed with the La Liga IP and, according to the companies, the first with “the official seal of approval from a competition of its size and scope.”

In a release, Little Spain offered a few early details about the project: “The objective is to create a story set in the context of Spanish professional football and from the idiosyncrasies of the La Liga teams, where football, culture and life converge. This project is the result of a creative collaboration with actor Josh Hutcherson, a friend and ally of Little Spain in Los Angeles. This is a milestone for Little Spain, as...

Today, Prime Video greenlit four new sports documentaries, including a four-part documentary on NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Sr., a four-part series chronicling the history of the Madden video game franchise, an anthology series about the most epic Game 7s throughout sports history, and a true-crime documentary about ChiefsAholic, the notorious Kansas City Chiefs superfan and serial bank robber.

Prime Video also announced the renewal of the Emmy-nominated docu-follow series Coach Prime for a third season. For the upcoming season, Coach Prime will once again transport fans inside the locker room and onto the field of Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders’ University of Colorado Boulder (Cu Boulder) football program.

Coach Prime is executive produced by Smac Entertainment’s Constance Schwartz-Morini, Michael Strahan, FredAnthony Smith, and Jamie Elias. Micah Brown also serves as executive producer and showrunner. Coach Prime is produced by Smac Productions, a division of Smac Entertainment, for Prime Video Sports.

Amazon is diving headfirst into the world of sports documentaries with four new projects on its streaming slate, including one on Dale Earnhardt Sr. and another about a Kansas City Chiefs super fan that will cross over int0 true crime as well.

The company announced all four projects during its Upfront presentation on Tuesday.

The documentaries are as follows:

A four-part documentary on NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Sr.; a four-part series chronicling the history of the Madden video game franchise; an anthology series about the most epic Game 7s throughout sports history; and a true-crime documentary about ChiefsAholic, the notorious Kansas City Chiefs superfan and serial bank robber.

More details about each are below.

Untitled Earnhardt Documentary

The history of the Earnhardt family is the history of NASCAR—you can’t tell the story of one without the other—and at the center of the Earnhardt family was Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Twenty years in, Kenan Thompson is the longest serving cast member on Saturday Night Live, but he likely owes part of his success on the show to his early work on another sketch comedy series, Nickelodeon’s All That, which premiered thirty years ago today on April 16th 1994.

Created as a Saturday Night Live for kids by Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins, All That consisted of comedy sketches performed by a cast of kids, alongside performances from some of the biggest musical acts of the day.

As it happened. Thompson—then fresh off his screen debut in D2: The Mighty Ducks—was the very first person All That viewers saw onscreen in a cold open:

Much like his SNL career, Thompson’s time on All That was marked by a large number of characters including Pierre Escargot, Superdude, and a Bill Cosby impression that he’d later bring to SNL.

Exclusive: Mike Tollin, executive producer of Emmy-winning The Last Dance, today announced the launch of Mtp, a re-branding and restructuring of his Mike Tollin Productions, with a focus on expanded content.

The announcement follows the premiere last month of his six-episode docuseries Justice, USA on Max.

Under the re-brand, sports will remain a major component of Mtp’s content expansion, and has allowed Tollin to bring on new talent and reorganize the company structure. Jonathan Vogler has been elevated to President of Unscripted Productions and Ricky Cruz has been brought on as VP/Development. On the scripted side, Harry Wood is now VP Development and Sarah Alammuri has joined as Director/Development. Steve Tollin remains Director of Finance.

“I love the new team,” said Tollin. “They’re passionate and scrappy. Sports will continue to be our main lane, but we’ll follow the side streets as often as possible to tell stories with pro-social content.

Hill Harper, running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, returned to Los Angeles earlier this month, where the actor headlined a fundraiser co-hosted by John Legend, as well as other figures including Vivica A. Fox and Mike Tollin.

The event was a needed boost to the actor and activist’s campaign: In the Democratic primary race, Harper is facing Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-mi), who has a wide lead in polls and in her campaign war chest. She had more than $6 million cash on hand as of the end of last year, dwarfing that of her rivals. Harper had almost $150,000.

Harper, best known for his roles in The Good Doctor and CSI:ny, is largely running to the left of Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, and obviously hoping for a breakthrough. He also has relayed what Barack Obama, a classmate at Harvard Law School, told him that as hard...

Soon after Bill Bradley takes the stage in Rolling Along: An American Story, there’s a realization that this is not a traditional political documentary of talking heads, archival clips and fleeting reflections.

The project instead is a “performative autobiography,” as Bradley, the former NBA champion, U.S. senator and presidential candidate, calls it.

During the 90-minute, one-man show, Bradley talks, in poetic terms at times, about reaching the heights of fame and suffering stinging losses. He recounts a life growing up in Crystal City, Mo, becoming a star athlete in high school, attending Princeton and then playing the New York Knicks. He speaks of how the teamwork skills helped open his eyes to the world and led to his political career, culminating in his 2000 bid for the presidency. He was defeated by then-Vice President Al Gore in his quest for the Democratic nomination. “I went from thinking of myself...

"I wanted to know America, like I once knew the seams of a basketball." HBO Max has revealed an official trailer for a sports biopic documentary called Rolling Along: An American Story, available streaming at the start of February on Max. "A story about all of us." Written & performed by two-time NBA Champion, former U.S. Senator, and lifelong storyteller Bill Bradley. The former NBA star and Senator recounts his life from Mississippi childhood to Princeton basketball fame, to the NBA, to 18 years in the Senate focused on rights, education & growth, and finally his presidential bid. After spending six years writing, developing, and performing his story on stage as a one-man show, Bradley partnered with the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Frank Oz, Academy Award winner Spike Lee, and Emmy Award-winning producer Mike Tollin to share this performative autobiography. This seems to be a filmed version of his stage performance with some additional footage & photos added in.

“Rolling Along: Bill Bradley,” an oral autobiography of the life and career of former star New York Knicks player and U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, has been acquired by Max and will begin streaming on the service Feb. 1.

Directed by “The Last Dance” executive producer Mike Tollin and executive produced by Spike Lee and Frank Oz, “Rolling Along: Bill Bradley” is the live theatrical recording of a stage performance by Bradley, who spent six years writing and developing the show. “Rolling Along,” which incorporates archival footage, was filmed over four nights at the Signature Theatre in New York, with an audience and five cameras at New York’s Signature Theater in 2021.

In the film, the former NBA champion and U.S. Senator shares scenes from his life, from his childhood in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River; to Princeton, where he became the best college basketball...

One Tree Hill was originally intended to be a movie called Ravens but was later developed into a TV series. The name of the series was changed from Ravens to One Tree Hill to better reflect the broader premise of the show. Turning One Tree Hill into a TV series allowed for more character development and the exploration of various topics and issues.

One Tree Hill remains one of the best teen dramas to this day, but the hit TV series was almost developed in a completely different format. Created by Mark Schwann, One Tree Hill centers on the residents of a fictional small town in North Carolina called Tree Hill. The initial premise revolved around two half-brothers, Lucas and Nathan Scott, whose rivalry blossoms into friendship after Lucas joins the Tree Hill Ravens, their high school basketball team of which Nathan is the team captain and star player. One Tree Hill...

"Radio" is an uplifting sports film with strong performances but occasionally falls into cliché storytelling. Stevie Wonder's "We Can Work It Out" sets the tone for the film and reflects its themes of understanding and acceptance. The trailer hints at a challenging journey for the protagonist, but ends on a hopeful note, promising a satisfying resolution.

The Radio movie trailer contains a memorable song that sets the tone for the film. Radio is a 2003 semi-autobiographical sports drama from director Michael Tollin, the man behind some of the more notable sports films and documentaries of the 2000s, including the Emmy Award-winning The Last Dance. In Radio, a 23-year-old named James Robert Kennedy (Cuba Gooding Jr.) with an intellectual disability, lives with his mother and spends his days walking around his neighborhood, collecting discarded items he finds interesting. His wanderings eventually take him to the local high school football team and...

The Max Original four-part docuseries Shaun White: The Last Run, an Msm production and directed by Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau, debuts Thursday, July 6 on Max.

Synopsis: With unprecedented access and never-before-seen personal archival footage, the docuseries is a revealing portrait of three-time Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest athletes in two separate sports, snowboarding and skateboarding, Shaun White. It is a story that includes childhood struggles with a congenital heart condition, the development of his unbeatable talent, sacrifices made by his unconventional but remarkably supportive parents, the move into pro-snowboarding at a young age, and of course, his exploits at the Olympics, where he holds the record for most gold medals by a snowboarder.

Episode Descriptions:

Episode 1: Becoming Shaun

As Shaun gears up to qualify for his fifth Olympics, he recalls his childhood in San Diego with his remarkably supportive family. Never-before-seen footage shows how the...

SlamBall is officially bouncing back.

The alternative sport — which combined elements of basketball, American football, ice hockey, and trampolines — has closed an $11 million Series A round led by Roger Ehrenberg’s Ia Sports Ventures and Eberg Capital as well as strategic investors across sports, gaming, entertainment, and media.

“It’s an incredible feeling to be back, and especially by popular demand,” said Mason Gordon, CEO and co-founder of SlamBall. “I want to thank SlamBall’s persistent and passionate fans for making this comeback possible and our investors for helping make the dream real. This is a true Cinderella story–only with helmets, pads and trampolines.”

SlamBall will relaunch with a six-week season this July in Las Vegas followed by a seventh playoff week. Domestic and international touring stops will follow. Talks are currently underway for distribution, while a docuseries about the league is in development via Mike Tollin’s Msm.

Amanda Bynes, along with fellow former All That cast members Lori Beth Denberg, Danny Tamberelli and Kel Mitchell, will reunite at 90’s Con for the show’s largest reunion since the popular Nickelodeon series wrapped 18 years ago. It also marks Bynes’ first major public appearance since her conservatorship ended last year. Hosted by Thats4Entertainment, the convention runs March 17-19 in Hartford, Ct.

Bynes et al will appear at the convention for the cast reunion and panel discussion. According to organizers, guests also “will have the chance to meet and greet with the cast for autographs, selfies and professional photo opportunities. There will also be an opportunity to take a photo on a replica of the iconic orange couch with the cast members.”

“I’m really excited to reunite with my cast mates and meet the fans at 90’s Con!” said Bynes.

Created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin, sketch...

Exclusive: The attempt by Atlanta Braves slugger Henry Aaron to break Babe Ruth’s hallowed record of 714 career home runs, and the armed guard from the Atlanta police department assigned to keep him safe 24/7 amidst racist hate mail and death threats, will be turned into a feature film.

715! is the working title of a film that will be written by Oscar-winning Precious scribe Geoffrey Fletcher. It will be produced by Mike Tollin and his Mandalay Sports Media, and Richard Saperstein through Bluestone, which will finance.

Tollin’s producing credits include the Chicago Bulls miniseries The Last Dance, as well as the films Coach Carter and Radio, and Saperstein’s credits include Se7en, John Q and Hancock. Tollin also wrote and directed Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, the Oscar-nominated and Peabody-winning 1995 documentary that created the relationship with Aaron, his wife Billye and his estate, which makes this film possible.

They...

Click here to read the full article.

There was a moment late in the 2008 men’s basketball gold medal match in Beijing — a tense matchup between a superstar-filled United States team and reigning world champions Spain — when Dwyane Wade drives with the ball past a defender, stopping short just as his feet hit the paint. Wade then kicks the ball out to Kobe Bryant, open and just beyond the three point line.

“I found him across the court, he jabbed, raised up and hit a three. It was at that moment that we realized it was over,” recalled Wade Thursday night while standing on the red carpet for the Netflix documentary The Redeem Team outside Netflix’s Tudum Theater in Hollywood. He knows the play well because it’s one of his favorites from the game, one that ended with gold medals around the necks of Wade, Bryant, LeBron James,...

Click here to read the full article.

Kenan Thompson will make his Emmys hosting debut Sept. 12. And if anyone has the résumé for the job, it’s him. He may be Saturday Night Live‘s longest-running castmember (he’s about to begin his 20th season), but Thompson, 44, has been cracking up live audiences as far back as 1994, when he was cast on Nickelodeon’s fledgling sketch-comedy show, All That.

Thompson, who grew up in Atlanta, had already landed a couple of plum movie roles by age 16, including one in Disney’s Heavyweights, a Judd Apatow-penned comedy about a weight-loss camp run by an unhinged entrepreneur (Ben Stiller). It was that performance that brought him to the attention of All That creators Brian Robbins (now president of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon) and Michael Tollin.

“There was no doubt from the first time we met him that he’d be an asset to our cast,...

Showtime Sports Documentary Films is set to release a documentary feature based on the life of basketball star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, entitled “Stand.” The documentary will premiere in early 2023.

Directed by Joslyn Rose Lyons, “Stand” explores the personal and professional struggles of Abdul-Rauf, from being bullied as a child due to his Tourette’s syndrome to becoming a target of hate speech and Islamophobia during his basketball career. The documentary film features exclusive interviews with several basketball and entertainment stars including Stephen Curry, Steve Kerr, Shaquille O’Neal, Jalen Rose, Mahershala Ali and Ice Cube.

“It is an honor to be collaborating with Showtime and the production team and working with our director, Joslyn Rose Lyons,” Abdul-Rauf said in a statement. “Joslyn has brought a stellar, brilliant vision to this film. My hope is that my story will help heal and bring new perspective to the world.”

The film marks Lyons’ feature-length directorial debut.

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix has picked up the documentary The Redeem Team, about the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team looking to reclaim the gold medal for Team USA at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Netflix plans an Oct. 7, 2022 release for the film executive produced by Olympians Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. “I’m excited for everyone to get an opportunity to go behind the scenes and see all the work that went into this iconic team — the Redeem Team!” Wade said in a statement on Friday.

The documentary features new Olympic footage, behind-the-scenes material and player and coaches interviews to portray Team USA looking for redemption after only earning the bronze medal four years earlier at the Athens Summer Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee, which opened up its video vault to the filmmakers, and Netflix collaborated on the film about an eventual gold...

Netflix has partnered with the International Olympic Committee for The Redeem Team—a new documentary looking at the U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball team’s iconic victory of 2008, which will be released globally on the streamer on October 7th.

Using unprecedented Olympic footage and behind-the-scenes material, The Redeem Team tells the story of the U.S Olympic Men’s Basketball Team’s quest for gold at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 following the previous team’s shocking, low-point performance four years earlier in Athens. The documentary offers a portrait of team building and features interviews with athletes and coaches from Dwyane Wade and LeBron James to Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski, who reflect on how The Redeem Team set a new standard for American basketball.

The Redeem Team is an Olympic Channel, Kennedy/Marshall Company & Mandalay Sports Media production in association with 59th and Prairie Entertainment, Uninterrupted, NBA Entertainment & USA Basketball.

NBA legends LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have teamed up once more — this time as executive producers and subjects of the new documentary “The Redeem Team,” which celebrates the victorious 2008 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball team.

Directed by Jon Weinbach (“The Last Dance”), the documentary marks the first collaboration between the International Olympic Committee (Ioc) and Netflix, as the project uses “unprecedented Olympic footage and behind-the-scenes material” to chronicle Team USA’s quest for Olympic gold at the 2008 games in Beijing.

According to the documentary’s official logline, “The Redeem Team” tells the story of the 2008 squad’s journey as they followed the previous team’s shocking performance four years earlier in Athens, where they took home a bronze medal after winning gold in the previous three straight Olympic Games. The film is said to offer “a fascinating portrait of team building” as it features interviews with the athletes and coaches,...

The last two episodes of the new series about the iconic New York Yankee Derek Jeter is now available to stream online. “The Captain” arrived on ESPN+ last month with new episodes airing on a weekly basis.

The docuseries, directed by Randy Wilkins and executive produced by Spike Lee and Mike Tollin, features dozens of intimate interviews with Jeter, alongside those in the athlete’s inner circle, such as his parents Dorothy and Dr. Charles Jeter, his sister Sharlee Jeter and his wife Hannah Jeter. Alex Rodriguez, Daryl Strawberry, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, manager Joe Torre and Dave Winfield also make appearances.

Through these conversations, viewers learn more about Jeter’s meteoric rise to success and the particular hurdles Jeter had to jump over as a biracial athlete. One revealing conversation with his family underscores how Jeter had to “work twice as hard” to reach his goals, even while journalists refused to acknowledge these setbacks,...

Search “Derek Jeter” on YouTube and you invariably land on a clip of “The Dive,” the longtime New York Yankee shortstop’s spectacular play during a July 2004 home game vs. rival Boston Red Sox. After Jeter caught a foul ball on the run, momentum carried him until he freight-trained face-first into the stands. A moment later, he stood, dazed, gripped by fans, blood flowing from his cheek and chin, in an instant that crystallized his gutsy commitment to winning, to baseball and to the team he led to five World Series titles in 20 seasons from 1995 to 2014. “Nobody played harder, and nobody wanted to win more,” says Michael Tollin, an executive producer of The Captain, a stirring, triumphant seven-part docuseries that looks at Jeter’s stellar Hall of Fame career. The show follows the unlikely rise of a remarkably determined, scrawny kid from a biracial family in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who fulfilled...

Randy Wilkins, who directed the upcoming Derek Jeter ESPN Films documentary series “The Captain,” had one word to describe the topic he had to drag out of the stoic Hall-of-Fame shortstop: “Alex.”

New York Yankees fans in attendance at the June 12 Tribeca Festival Q&a following the first episode’s premiere got a kick out of that one. Jeter, who sat calmly on the Bmcc Tribeca Performing Arts Center stage beside Wilkins, perhaps did not. Wilkins, of course, was referring to Alex Rodriguez, an all-time-great Major League Baseball infielder in his own right. Jeter and A-Rod famously did not get along after the Yankees signed Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers star Rodriguez (whom many baseball pundits believed to be the superior shortstop).

Jeter held his literal ground on the left side of the infield: A-Rod switched positions to third base, and what had been an easy friendship forged at All-Star Games was never the same.

Finally. Smallville is flying its way onto Blu-ray for the first time ever this October in honor of the Emmy-winning show's 20th anniversary, courtesy of Warners Bros. Home Entertainment. Starring Tom Welling as a young Clark Kent in the years before he fights crime as Superman, the series ran for 10 seasons with 218 total episodes. They'll all be packed together on the new Blu-ray set dubbed Smallville: The Complete Series 20th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray and DVD.

Per the press release: "The groundbreaking, Emmy-winning 10-season hit that redefined the origins of the world's greatest superhero is all here - from Krypton refugee Kal-El's arrival on Earth through his tumultuous teen years to Clark Kent's final steps toward embracing his destiny as the Man of Steel. Relive a decade's worth of thrills in fantastic adventures full of action, heart and humor in abundance, all anchored by the marvelous performance of Tom Welling at its center.

James “Radio” Kennedy, the South Carolina high school football mainstay whose story inspired the 2003 film Radio, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., has died at age 73.

T.L. Hanna High School football coach Harold Jones confirmed Kennedy’s death to the Independent Mail, a newspaper in Anderson, Sc. Jackie Kennedy, his niece and caregiver, told local TV station Wyff that Kennedy was hospitalized Saturday night before succumbing Sunday morning.

According to Jones, Kennedy had been treated for pancreatitis as well as ongoing diabetes and kidney issues.

Kennedy was a fixture in the school’s football program, earning his nickname by carrying a transistor radio everywhere he went. Kennedy coped with his intellectual disability by steadily attending football games at Hanna in the 1960s. He remained a constant presence at the school until his death. An article in Sports Illustrated brought his story to a national audience, providing the basis for the film.

“He was just a fine,...

James “Radio” Kennedy, the inspiration for the 2003 Cuba Gooding Jr. film “Radio,” died early Sunday at age 73.

Harold Jones, the former football coach at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson County, South Carolina, played by Ed Harris in the film, confirmed Kennedy’s death to the Anderson Independent Mail.

The 2003 film centered on the relationship between Jones and Kennedy, a young man with intellectual disabilities and an infectious smile who had long been drawn to Hanna’s football program since showing up on the field as a teenager in the mid-1960s.

Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2019 (Photos)

He gained the nickname “Radio” for the transistor radio he kept with him at all times — and soon won acceptance from both the team as well as the surrounding community — where he became what the Independent Mail called an “unofficial 11th-grader” at T.L. Hanna High School for decades.

“He became a fixture at football practices,...

One of the most successful TV shows in the history of Nickelodeon has been All That, a sketch comedy series starring kids and teens that aired from 1994 to 2005 (with a two-year hiatus in between). All That has been responsible for jumpstarting the careers of several talented individuals in the comedy genre and in the entertainment business as a whole. Most notably, Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Amanda Bynes, Gabriel Iglesias, and Nick Cannon.

Related: Nickelodeon's 25 Best TV Shows Ever

Created by Michael Tollin and Brian Robbins, Nickelodeon’s All That was also responsible for three successful spin-offs that dominated the TV screens between the late 1990s and the early 2000s: Kenan & Kel, The Amanda Show, and The Nick Cannon Show. But was has the cast of All That been up to since then?...

The broadcast premiere of the feature-length documentary The Nagano Tapes tonight on NBC Sports Network at 11:30 Pm Et (after the Red Wings-Blues game) kicks off a five-film deal for Mandalay Sports Media and Frank Marshall’s Five Ring Films for The Olympic Channel.

The debut docu, about the men’s hockey tournament at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games when professional players participated in the Games for the first time, will be followed in the spring by La Lucha, directed by Peter Berg, about Cuban boxing legend and three-time Olympic gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson, who famously turned down $5 million to fight Muhammad Ali. Also in the works is a film on Argentina’s stunning gold-medal run, led by Manu Ginobli, at the 2014 Athens Games in men’s basketball.

The docus are part of keeping the heat from the just-ended Winter Games in PyeongChang. The Olympic Channel, which launched in August...

Sports Illustrated TV (Si TV) is set to collaborate with award-winning filmmaker and co-chair of Mandalay Sports Media, Mike Tollin, and Gary Cohen's Triple Threat TV to produce the documentary, We Town. This will be the first original film for the newly launched streaming network. "Si TV is a one-stop shop for any sports lover, and We Town is a terrific example of our commitment to bringing premium original programming to the service," said Josh Oshinsky, VP of…...

Exclusive: Peter Guber and Mike Tollin's Msm has optioned the rights to journalist Paul Solotaroff's in-depth account of the fentanyl epidemic which is currently devastating the suburban communities of New England. The article delves into a local DEA bureau chief's relentless pursuit to fight the war on drugs. Published yesterday in Men’s Journal, the 8,000-word piece is titled “The Needle and the Damage Done.” It will be developed as a one-hour drama designed for cable…...

Coming off the network’s first Oscar win for “Oj: Made in America,” Espn’s latest “30 for 30” film delves into Los Angeles sports history once again. Premiering Tuesday night, “Morningside 5” is a fresh, new story for most viewers, but it’s well-traveled ground for filmmaker Mike Tollin, who first filmed five high school basketball stars — Stais Boseman, Dwight Curry, Corey Saffold, Dominic Ellison and Sean Harris — from Inglewood, California, back in 1992. Then new to Hollywood himself, documentary filmmaker Tollin teamed up with “Head of the Class” actor Brian Robbins to capture the essence of inner city high school basketball in.

Before Friday Night Lights, both the movie and hit TV series of the same name, fans got a glimpse at the football-crazed way of life in West Texas in the 1999 film Varsity Blues. The R-rated movie, one of the first under the nascent MTV Films banner, was a modest hit, earning $52.8 million from a $16 million budget, and now it seems we may be returning to this world with a sequel set in modern-day. While nothing is set in stone, James Van Der Beek hinted in a recent interview that there are talks under way to continue this story.

The actor made this surprising revelation during a Facebook Live Q&A with Yahoo! Movies, when a fan asked, since everything is getting a remake or a sequel these days, what are the chances that a new Varsity Blues movie may happen. There was talk of a Varsity Blues TV series happening with Cmt,...

It would be tough finding a harder working actor than Liev Schreiber who has successfully transitioned from supporting roles in movies to his very own TV show, playing fixer Ray Donovan on the Showtime series for five seasons. He’s received four Golden Globe nominations and two Emmy nominations playing that role.

In between seasons he’s found the time to make Chuck, a movie about the famed “Bayonne Brawler,” Chuck Wepner, whose career was documented in the Espn “30 for 30” doc, The Real Rocky. Besides being the New Jersey Heavyweight Champion in the ‘70s, Wepner famously went 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali, but his somewhat tragic story was also the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone to make Rocky.

The movie, directed by Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), recreates Chuck’s family life with his second wife Phyllis (Elisabeth Moss) and daughter. It then shows how his brush with fame led to drinking and...

Here is an exclusive clip before tonight’s premiere of the finished feature biopic of boxer Chuck Wepner gets a splashy Tribeca Film Festival premiere, the film showing for the first time under its new title Chuck. Producer Mike Tollin, who has been promising Wepner his life story would make the screen for real since he optioned his rights in 2003 — you can’t count Best Picture winner Rocky even though many, Wepner included, felt Sylvester Stallone channeled Wepner’s…...

IFC has released the first trailer for its upcoming biopic Chuck, which is set to hit theaters on May 5. While many fans may not know Chuck Wepner by name, the New Jersey boxer served as the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone's iconic character Rocky Balboa. Liev Schreiber stars as Wepner, whose extraordinary true story is told for the first time on the big screen.

Chuck Wepner was a liquor salesman from New Jersey who went 15 rounds with the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali. In his ten years in the ring, Wepner endured two knockouts, eight broken noses, and 313 stitches. But his toughest fights were outside the ring: an epic life of drugs, booze, wild women, incredible highs and extraordinary lows in IFC's biopic.

Liev Schreiber is joined by an all-star cast that also includes Naomi Watts, Elisabeth Moss, Ron Perlman, Jim Gaffigan, Michael Rapaport and Pooch Hall, with...

“Sometimes Life Is Like A Movie. Sometimes It’S Better”

Watch the trailer for the upcoming movie Chuck – we can’t wait for this one! In theaters May 5th.

Directed by Philippe Falardeau, Chuck stars Naomi Watts, Ron Perlman, Elisabeth Moss, Liev Schreiber, Jim Gaffigan, and Morgan Spector.

He was the pride of Bayonne, New Jersey, a man who went fifteen rounds in the ring with Muhammad Ali, and the real life inspiration for Rocky Balboa. But before all that, Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber) was a liquor salesman and father with a modest prizefighting career whose life changed overnight when, in 1975, he was chosen to take on The Greatest in a highly publicized title match.

It’s the beginning of a wild ride through the exhilarating highs and humbling lows of sudden fame—but what happens when your fifteen minutes in the spotlight are up?

Driven by a committed performance from Liev Schreiber,...

Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America” won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature last night at the 2017 Academy Awards. It was a major coup for Espn, a media behemoth known for live sports events and shows, not movies. Yet what is more remarkable about “O.J.” is how many people have seen the clear-eyed, seven-hour-and-forty-five-minute historical examination of race in America.

Read More: Oscar Nominated Filmmakers Take Us Inside Their Artistic Process

From its June 11 premiere through the month of July, 41 million viewers tuned into watch one of the 40 telecasts of “O.J.” on ABC, Espn, and ESPN2. An additional 3.4 million unique viewers streamed the doc through the network’s streaming app WatchESPN. And while total viewership numbers are unavailable for Cable VOD, Espn told IndieWire the film has seen at least 7.1 million transactions. Not included in these numbers are how many viewers watched the film in theaters, on Hulu this August,...

Philippe Falardeau’s drama starring Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss and Naomi Watts has gone to IFC Films in a Us deal in Toronto.

EuropaCorp sources confirmed they had acquired Us rights from CAA to Lone Scherfig’s rom-com Their Finest, which stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Clafin and Bill Nighy and premiered as a Gala Presentation.

Meanwhile Netflix continued to pursue Us and select international rights to Fabrice Du Welz’s Message From The King starring Chadwick Boseman, the Vanguard selection it has been stalking since the weekend.

Buyers were understood to be circling Onur Tukel’s black comedy Catfight starring Sandra Oh and Anne Heche and interest was coalescing around George Nolfi’s Birth Of The Dragon following its world premiere on Tuesday.

Earlier on Wednesday Music Box announced it had acquired Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion.

Returning to The Bleeder, IFC Films brokered the deal with UTA Independent Film Group in the wake of last weekend...