Yahoo Finance Tony Hawk’s Life and Skateboarding Career Will Be Focus of Feature Doc Produced by Duplass Brothers (EXCLUSIVE)
UPDATE: Tony Hawk, the skateboarding superstar whose name has become virtually synonymous with the now-Olympic sport, will be the subject of a major forthcoming feature documentary.
The film is being produced by the Duplass brothers, with ICM Partners representing sales for the film, Variety has learned.
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“We’ve been quietly working on this one for a few years,” producer Mark Duplass told Variety. “We are floored with the unmitigated access Tony has allowed us to his life and his fascinating relationship to the sport.”
The as-yet-untitled film will focus on the life and career of the 53-year-old ‘Birdman,’ and is being directed by filmmaker-photographer Sam Jones (“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” “Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued”).
“I’ve been a skater my whole life, so this film is a passion project for me and I am excited to find a good home for it,” said Jones.
Hawk told Variety: “We have already shot everything for it, it’s just in the editing process. I definitely wanted to give them as much footage and interview as possible.”
The film marks the second collaboration for Hawk and Jones: the skateboarder previously appeared as a guest on the first season of “Off Camera with Sam Jones,” the filmmaker’s interview-format TV series.
Further details of the doc are yet to be unveiled, although a fall festival launch is anticipated, ahead of a wider release in 2022.
Beyond his high profile in the sports world, Hawk is perhaps best known in the entertainment realm for his titular video game franchise, published by Activision, which has spawned 21 games since 1999. The latest installment, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2,” sold more than a million copies within its first month of release last September.
Ironically, while Hawk himself is only now receiving the definitive documentary treatment, his video game franchise has already been the subject of a doc. As Variety reported last year, worldwide rights for Ludvig Gür’s documentary “Pretending I’m Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story” were picked up by Wood Entertainment.
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