Braddock native directed Jordan in original film
In January 1992, the nearly 80 million viewers who tuned in to Super Bowl XXVI were treated to an audacious pairing of two cultural icons — Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.
As part of a Nike advertisement, the Chicago Bulls superstar and the iconic Looney Tunes character teamed up on the basketball court. As the two walked off the court at the end of the commercial, Bugs says to Jordan, “This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Who could have predicted it would lead to “Space Jam,” a beloved movie that still resonates 25 years after its release? Not Joe Pytka, the Braddock native who directed the commercial and movie.
“I thought the idea of a movie was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of in my life,” Pytka told the Post-Gazette. “I thought it was a silly idea.”
Yet “Space Jam” became a cultural phenomenon, vaulting Jordan to a different level of stardom, endearing Looney Tunes to a new generation of fans and becoming one of the highest-grossing sports movies ever made. On Friday, a LeBron James-led sequel, “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” will be released in theaters.
It all began with Jim Riswold, creative director for the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy. He was tasked with making a Jordancentered commercial for Nike for the Super Bowl. A Looney Tunes fanatic, Riswold settled on making Bugs the co-star.
Titled “Hare Jordan,” the commercial was a hit, earning praise, attention and a Directors Guild Award nomination for Pytka. That success spawned a second commercial featuring the duo and, after a series of discussions, a movie deal.
The movie depicts Jordan, recently retired from the NBA, schlepping as a minor-league
baseball player. Out of nowhere, he is asked by Bugs for help in a basketball game against a group of aliens bolstered by the stolen powers of several prominent NBA players. If the Looney Tunes characters lose, they’ll become enslaved attractions at the aliens’ struggling theme park.
Although Pytka had directed the commercials, the choice of director was no slam dunk.
By the 1990s, he had become a prominent figure in commercials and music videos, a long way from his start working part-time for a small local motion picture company while he studied fine arts at Carnegie Mellon University and chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2014, he was inducted into the Advertising Hallof Fame for commercials for companies such as Nike, Anheuser-Buschand Pepsi.
“While you’re watching one of his commercials, you
feel the power of these visuals, you get a little bit of humor and you’re left a little choked up,” said James Lima, visual effects supervisor on “Space Jam.” “You’re kind of like ‘Wow, I didn’t realize that thing was going to affect me that way.’ That’s a huge, huge talent. It’s rare.”
One key was Pytka’s
friendship with Jordan. The two had worked on Nike ads together and in that time forged a bond so strong that Pytka said he only agreed to direct “Space Jam” because Jordan asked him to.
“Joe made Michael comfortable,” said Tony Cervone, the movie’s animation director. “Without Joe’s direction,
without Joe’s support, I don’t think any of that would have happened.”
The film was a massive technological endeavor at that time, wedding animation and live action.
“I would like to say something nice, but the film was a pain in the ass to do,” Pytka said. “It was a pain in the ass.”
It was also a pain for Jordan, a novice actor burdened with public appearances who tried to work on his body and basketball skills around filming.
“Michael toward the end told me, ‘I thought you told me this was going to be fun,’” Pytka recalled. “Yeah, it should have been.”
The movie, which came out the year Jordan won the NBA MVP award and secured his fourth championship, was a commercial juggernaut, bringing in $250 million worldwide. Its release date, only about a month before Christmas, earned it millions from the movie’s merchandise and soundtrack.
“Joe has said many times that it’s an 88-minute commercial for Michael Jordan,” said Nate Bellamy, who worked on “Space Jam” as thebasketball coordinator.
Its success birthed talk of a sequel, but with Jordan unwilling to participate, the idea lost steam. In 2003,
Warner Bros. released “Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” but the venture flopped, earning $68.2 million against an $80 million budget.
Pytka believes the film failed largely because it was missing Jordan and what the director calls his “innocent charisma that’s transcendental.”
“‘Space Jam’ existed because of the magic between Michael and Bugs,” he said. “If you don’t have that, why do anything?”
The mere existence of a sequel, let alone one debuting 25 years after the original, speaks to the impact of its predecessor.
“It hit a giant generation at a critical time,” Cervone said. “It has never really gone away. It has been a presence for 25 years. No one would have predicted that. I think it’s cool and I’m happy, but it’s shocking.”