ALEX CONVERY

“Sole Man”

Two and a half years ago, Convery was strapped for ideas. He had representation and two of his spec scripts had landed on the Black List, but he’d yet to see any of his screenplays make it into production, and he was looking for inspiration. He found it in one of the most relatable experiences known to modern man: shut up inside his apartment during the pandemic, watching the Michael Jordan doc series “The Last Dance” on ESPN.

However, the screenplay that he completed, titled “Air Jordan,” is not a biopic. Now called “Sole Man,” the film is a gripping, witty boardroom procedural zeroing in on a few fateful days in the life of Sonny Vaccaro, a scrappy sports marketing guru who persuaded skeptical execs at a then-struggling upstart sneaker company, Nike, to bet the bank on an endorsement deal with a rookie NBA player from North Carolina back in 1984.

“You always look for backdoor ways into very famous figures or stories, and obviously Michael Jordan is right up there,” the Chicago native says. “Being able to portray this now-billion-dollar company as an underdog, and Michael as a sort of unknown quantity, those two things in parallel really interested me.”

Convery’s script made the Black List, and was optioned. The writer assumed little would come of it, until Ben Affleck expressed an interest in directing and co-starring in it, bringing Matt Damon along to play Vaccaro. The film wrapped principal photography in July, and is tentatively set for release on Amazon next year.

Reps: Agent: UTA; Management: Grandview

Influences: Joel and Ethan Coen, Tony Gilroy

— Andrew Barker