Showtime will debut “McEnroe” on September 2nd.Courtesy of Showtime
Summer has traditionally been a later time in the sports calendar, but there are plenty of streaming options available for fans who can’t get enough.
On August 12th, Amazon Prime released A League of Their Own. It’s a hit 1992 movie about the real-life All-American Women’s Professional Baseball League during World War II. The new series stars Chante Adams and D’Arcy Carden and has been her No. 1 show on Prime since its launch.
Three days later, Hulu debuted the 10-episode documentary series Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers. It focuses on the ‘Showtime’ era of the franchise in the 1980s and features interviews with a long list of team legends.
The next day, Netflix released the latest installment of the Untold series. “The Girlfriend Who Never Was” is his two-part documentary revisiting the story of catfish fishing around his 2012 former Notre Dame football star, Manti, his Theo. This area resonates with audiences and maintains a steady presence in Netflix’s Top 10.
And just last week, FX and Hulu premiered “Welcome to Wrexham.” This is a documentary series that follows his two clueless Americans who take the reins of football on his team. Of course, unlike the Emmy-winning “Ted Russo,” “Welcome to Wrexham” is a true story. Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney invested his £2m to buy Wrexham AFC, Welsh fifth tier football team, but they don’t pretend not to know much about football. Hmm. But they know how to connect with the club’s die-hard fans.
The next major arrivals on the calendar are two documentaries. The first takes a closer look at one of the sport’s hottest and most compelling personalities, while the second uses unprecedented archival footage to revisit one of basketball’s great teams. increase.
McEnroe
Release date: September 2nd
Production company: Silver Entertainment, Dog Woof
Where to watch: show time
Three summers ago, director Bernie Douglas took an elevator up to John McEnroe’s apartment in the Central Park skyscraper and was greeted by a robed former top-ranked tennis player. They went to the kitchen, where McEnroe posed open-ended questions to Douglas about what a documentary about him would look like. , known for his confrontational demeanor on the court, but got the impression that he was a little bored with tennis.
“Everybody wanted to talk to him about tennis. Tennis, tennis, tennis,” said Douglas, though he admitted he’s not a big fan of the sport himself. I want to talk about ties and family.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ That was his purpose. Of course, we know that viewers want the tennis element as well. But it was about incorporating it into the story, not making it all. “
As such, “McEnroe” reflects both the tennis star’s tumultuous career and his personal life. Includes archived footage of key matches, as well as home videos courtesy of McEnroe. The 63-year-old said he was heavily involved in the documentary’s creative direction, but “there was no final cut or anything like that.”
The film, which had its world premiere at Tribeca earlier this year, features an eclectic cast of voices, including tennis legend Bjorn Borg and The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards.
“This is not a tennis story. This is a human story,” said Stephen Espinoza, Showtime’s president of sports. “This is a complex, multi-layered profile of the personality that happens to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
“I think everyone remembers cockiness and outbursts. , to be a better human being.”
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade (from left, with Carmelo Anthony) are executive producers of the new Netflix service.Getty Images
redemption team
Release date: October 7
Production company: Olympic Channel; Kennedy/Marshall Company; Mandalay Sports Media; 59th & Prairie Entertainment; NBA Entertainment;american basketball
Where to watch: netflix
With access to unprecedented footage, director John Weinbach takes a closer look at the 2008 United States Olympic men’s basketball team as they came together to reclaim gold after their demoralizing defeat at the 2004 Olympics. Draw a portrait of the building. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, the team’s primary scorers, served as executive producers on the project.
“I think it’s a very compelling portrait of team building,” says Weinbach. “It’s also a snapshot of a moment not too long ago, but the prism of this team allows us to see how much the world has changed since 2008. I love the interplay of cultures, histories, sports and identities.” is. “
This is the first time that the International Olympic Committee has produced a film exclusively for the global streaming service, making archival footage from 70 years of Olympic history available.
“With 58,000 hours of Olympic archives, knowing where to look is more important than publishing it,” said documentary producer Greg Groggel, original executive producer for the Olympic Channel. I’m here. “After years of producing original, award-winning shows, we had a sense of what existed and where we could find it.”