HBO Sports landed distribution rights to the Imagine Documentaries and Fuqua Films feature documentary "The Day Sports Stood Still" about the "unprecedented sports shutdown in March of 2020 and the remarkable turn of events that followed," according to Andreas Wiseman of DEADLINE. Antoine Fuqua will "direct the film chronicling the abrupt stoppage, athletes’ prominent role in the cultural reckoning on racial injustices that escalated during the pandemic and the complex return to competition." At the "center of the film will be the first-person account" of Thunder G and NBPA President Chris Paul. An executive producer, Paul will "relive his entire experience from being in the middle of the first game to be stopped on March 11, 2020 against the Utah Jazz, to suddenly living in quarantine, to his crucial role in helping re-open the NBA safely to playing in 'the bubble.'" The documentary will include a "broad swath of voices and experiences exploring how the pandemic pressed pause on their careers, but also changed their lives." Those voices will include Chiefs G Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who opted out of the NFL season to battle COVID-19 on the front-lines as a doctor, and WNBA Washington Mystics G Natasha Cloud, who decided to forgo the '20 season to focus on protesting racial injustice (DEADLINE.com, 10/26).
LEBRON'S NEXT PROJECT: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Etan Vlessing reported LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill Company and CNN Films have "partnered to produce 'Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street,' a documentary about the history of Black Wall Street ahead of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre." CNN Films will be the "linear TV distributor for the feature across North America, with HBO Max acquiring streaming rights" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 10/26).
