NBA’s Stephen Curry is quickly becoming a new player on the Hollywood production scene. The Golden State Warriors star announced in April the production deal between his company, Unanimous Media, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Curry and Unanimous Media partners Jeron Smith and Erick Peyton talked with Variety about the plans he has for Hollywood, which includes creating family and faith-based entertainment.
Some of the projects and concepts include entertainment related to Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter, as well as entertainment surrounding faith-based themes such as an animated biblical story set at Sony Pictures Animation and Church Hoppers, a comedy in the vein of Wedding Crashers focusing on “a jilted groom who takes his pals along with him as he navigates the church scene in search of a new bride.” There will also be films that focus solely on sports or family without any tie to faith. Curry’s company could also have movies coming to theaters from a studio other than Sony since some deals were made before the one Unanimous made with Sony.
Of course, a lot of the projects reflect Curry’s brand as a role model and squeaky-clean family man, something Curry doesn’t run away from in spite of the NBA’s hypebeast mentality. “I don’t mind being called corny,” he said to Variety. “I’m comfortable with who I am.”
Curry’s move into the realm of Hollywood is part of an emerging trend among basketball stars. Even though players have acted in films or on television before, such as Grant Hill on Living Single, Dwight Howard in Just Wright, and Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and other NBA greats in Space Jam, the NBA hasn’t been the proving ground for emerging media moguls until recently, with LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Media, which launched Survivor’s Remorse on STARZ as well as film projects like documentary Student Athlete, which focuses on the exploitative world of college sports.
Other athletes getting into the production arena include Oakland Raiders football star Marshawn Lynch and his BeastMode Prods., and the NBA-NFL collaboration of Detroit Pistons’ Blake Griffin and Carolina Panthers’ Ryan Kalil with their production company Mortal Media, which recently sold a sci-fi comedy pitch to Paramount along with getting several more projects in development, including a White Men Can’t Jump remake from Black-ish‘s Kenya Barris and a reboot of The Rocketeer.