Jonathan Majors has the inside track to land a role of a lifetime playing former NBA star Dennis Rodman in the upcoming film, “48 Hours in Las Vegas.”
Variety reported that Majors and his management team are negotiating terms to star in the Lionsgate film about one of the NBA’s most notorious bad boys.
Jordan VanDina penned the spec script on the fictionalized version of Rodman’s epic Las Vegas trip, and a bidding war ensued. Lionsgate won the filming rights in an auction. Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Aditya Sood will produce the film under Lord Miller Productions.
Rodman’s Vegas Bender
Hollywood is taking a little bit of an artistic license with the Rodman film by setting “48 Hours in Las Vegas” during the 1998 NBA Finals, with the Chicago Bulls against the Utah Jazz. In real life, Rodman’s Vegas bender occurred in January in the middle of the 1997-98 season, when Michael Jordan and the Bulls attempted to win a third-straight NBA title and complete a second three-peat.
The film also has a fictionalized assistant GM, who tags along with Rodman. It sounds like a funny buddy comedy, which is why numerous production companies were trying to outbid each other for VanDina’s screenplay.
Phil Jackson found success as a head coach because he knew how to massage the egos of his players, each of whom had their own unique personality. The eccentric and moody Rodman is regarded as one of the NBA’s greatest rebounders. But he was prone to bouts of outlandish behavior, much to the detriment of himself and his team.
During his tenure with the Bulls, Rodman got special treatment from Jackson, which often irked other members of the team and the front office. Jackson employed these unusual methods to keep Rodman focused on helping the Bulls win another championship.
“I need to go to Vegas,” a restless Rodman told Jackson in ESPN’s documentary, The Last Dance.
You let him go to Vegas, we not gonna see him,” said Jordan.
Jackson and Jordan agreed to give Rodman a Vegas vacation so he could blow off some steam during a high-pressure season. However, a 48-hour pass turned into several lost days in Las Vegas, which coincided with a short-lived marriage to supermodel/actress Carmen Electra.
The Bulls sent an emissary to Sin City to retrieve Rodman from his trashed hotel suite and were able to bring him back to the team.
The Bulls went on to win the 1997-98 NBA championship, which marked three in a row and six total titles for Jordan and the Bulls. Rodman’s marriage with Electra lasted only nine days before it was annulled.
Majors: Breakout Star in Sports Films
In 2019, Majors garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his stunning work in the film, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” His career quickly took off. In 2020, Majors earned accolades for his role as Atticus Sampson in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country.”
Majors will appear in the upcoming film “Devotion,” where he stars as Navy fighter pilot Jesse Brow during the Korean War.
If you’re a fan of the Marvel Universe, Majors appeared in the “Loki” series as Kang the Conqueror. He will reprise his villain role in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which is scheduled to come out in 2023.
If Majors lands the role of Rodman, he can add a pro basketball player to his growing list of sports films. He’s playing the bad guy in “Creed III” from the popular “Rocky” boxing franchise.
Major recently wrapped production on “Magazine Dreams,” where he plays an amateur bodybuilder caught up in a world of exploitation and violence.
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