Photo Credit: Amazon
Kenya Barris, the creator of ABC’s acclaimed comedy Black-ish, is teaming up with athletes turned producers Blake Griffin of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and Ryan Kalil of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers to develop a remake of the 1992 sports comedy White Men Can’t Jump for 20th Century Fox.
Barris will write the script for the project, which falls under his overall film deal with Fox that he signed in September. Barris also will act as a producer.
Griffin and Kalil are producing via their Mortal Media banner, along with their partner Noah Weinstein.
White Men Can’t Jump, written and directed by Ron Shelton, starred Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as two street basketball hustlers who at first try to hustle each other, then team up for a bigger score. Also figuring into the equation is Harrelson’s character’s longtime girlfriend, played by Rosie Perez, whose dream is to appear on TV’s Jeopardy!
The title comes into play when Snipes’ character makes fun of Harrelson for his inability to make dunk shots. (Griffin knows a thing or two about dunking, having won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 2011.)
Kenya Barris was interviewed by TMZ Sports and says it’s not really a remake, but more so paying homage to the movie. He also says Blake Griffin is who made him want to do the reboot. Kenya says there’s a “high” chance Blake will also appear in the movie, and he’d love to have the original guys Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson make an appearance although he didn’t feel the need to get their blessing to make it because it’s a different film. Kenya notes that white men CAN jump now and that’ll be a factor in the movie.
