Space Jam was a cultural phenomenon, a movie with Michael Jordan going head-to-head with aliens in a battle for Earth. It’s a pretty terrible flick to watch as an adult, even if I was the perfect age to love it -- and I did -- as a kid
Nevertheless, there’s been talk that Space Jam 2 is in the works, with Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James as the lead role.
According to an interview Entertainment Weekly did with Space Jam’s director Joe Pytka, that’s not something he wants to see.
“I think it’s ridiculous to try and make a different movie out of it,” he declares. “I can’t see it. I can’t imagine how it could be what that film was. Not that Space Jam is a great movie, but it had something that touched that period of time because of who those athletes were and it doesn’t exist anymore.”
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“I’ve worked with LeBron and I’ve worked with Steph Curry, and as good a player as LeBron is and as good a player as Steph Curry is, they’re not Michael Jordan,” he argues. “We will never see another player like him. He was a transcendent figure, much like Muhammad Ali. He was beyond his sport. These guys aren’t.”
Tough to hear, but it’s likely that James is an even better actor than MJ. He was OK in Trainwreck, and the coupling of new CGI techniques would make it less cheesy and more impressive visually.
With how much money has been made on the back of nostalgia -- and that we Millennials seem to crave it or are easy assuaged into consuming it from movie studios -- it seems like we’re going to see Space Jam 2 with LeBron in it whether Pytka wants to or not.