Nothing is sacred in Hollywood today, not even—or perhaps especially not—your childhood.
That’s why Space Jam 2 might just become a reality, a possibility that has quickened into a probability with today’s announcement of Fast & Furious 6 director Justin Lin’s interest in helming the LeBron James-starring sequel. Lin is in talks to direct the film for Warner Bros., with Lin, Andrew Dodge and Alfredo Botello writing the script, THR reports.
Rumors of Space Jam 2 are nothing new, and were most notably stoked by the content deal NBA star James signed with Warner Bros. last July. Around that same time, James played Bill Hader’s scene-stealing best friend in Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck, prompting our own Andy Crump to note in his review that, “If the ‘basketball legend’ thing doesn’t work out for him, he could have a decent secondary career as a comic actor.” It looks like James, now poised to star in Lin’s sequel to 1996’s Space Jam, is a man who can do both.
THR’s sources say that Space Jam 2’s development is still in the early stages, but that Lin, Dodge and Botello are working on the script now, with Lin also set to produce through his Perfect Storm Entertainment. Lin is a well-established presence behind the camera, having helmed four of the Fast & Furious films, as well as Star Trek Beyond, the Star Trek: Into Darkness sequel due out on July 22. Lin also directed a handful of True Detective episodes, although they were from the show’s much-maligned second season. Dodge, however, has just one screenwriting credit to his name in the 2013 Jason Bateman-directed dramedy, Bad Words, and Botello, too, has a limited track record, with 2015’s Hollywood Adventures and little else under his belt.
Let’s hope the trio can pull off Space Jam 2 without retroactively destroying our fond memories of Michael Jordan dominating the Monstars.