ESPN has lined up acclaimed directors including Barry Levinson (Rain Man), Spike Lee (Miracle at St. Anna), Richard Linklater (School of Rock), Barbara Kopple (Shut Up & Sing), Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens), and Dan Klores (Crazy Love) for a new documentary series called 30 for 30, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The program aims to match up 30 feature film and doc directors with sports subjects they care about, airing them as hour-long, semi-regular programs starting this fall and into 2010.
Levinson’s film — "And the Band Marched on," about the 1984 defection of the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis — will be the first doc in the series, and the first non-fiction film for the Oscar-winning director. Kopple has also started work on her doc about the Steinbrenner dynasty. Also announced: Maysles’ film about Muhammad Ali’s 1980 fight against Larry Holmes, and Klores’ film about Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller’s eight-points-in-10-seconds streak in a 1995 playoff game against the New York Knicks. Lee, Linklater, and producer Mike Tollin (Coach Carter) have also signed on to direct as-yet-unspecified docs for the series.
A while back, Bill Simmons said on his sportscast that Steve Nash was going to direct or wanted to direct one of these docs. His was going to be about Terry Fox.
It’s pretty funny that Klores is making a doc about Reggie Miller’s flurry, since Spike Lee was famously there (I guess Lee was too close to the story to make the doc himself)