Space Jam premiered inLos Angeles on November 10, 1996, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 15, byWarner Bros. under itsFamily Entertainment label.[1] The film received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided over its premise of combining Jordan and his profession with theLooney Tunes characters, while the technical achievements of its intertwining of live-action and animation were praised.[6] It was a commercial success, grossing $250.2 million worldwide against an $80 million budget, becoming thehighest-grossing basketball film of all time until 2022, and thetenth-highest-grossing film of 1996.
A standalone sequel,Space Jam: A New Legacy, was released in 2021, withLeBron James in the lead role. The sequel received generally negative reviews and failed to match the commercial success of the first film.
Plot
In 1973, a youngMichael Jordan tells his father,James, about his dreams of playing in theNBA. Twenty years later, following James’ death, Jordan retires from basketball to pursue a career in baseball.
In outer space, amusement park Moron Mountain is in decline. Its proprietor, Mr. Swackhammer, learns of theLooney Tunes from the Nerdlucks, his quintet of alien minions, and orders them to abduct the Tunes to serve as attractions. The Nerdlucks enter the Tunes' universe via a portal hidden in the center of the Earth and hold them hostage beforeBugs Bunny convinces them to allow the Tunes to defend themselves. The Tunes take advantage of the Nerdlucks' small stature and challenge them to a basketball game. After seeing a documentary about basketball, the Nerdlucks infiltrate various NBA games, stealing the talents ofCharles Barkley,Shawn Bradley,Patrick Ewing,Larry Johnson, andMuggsy Bogues. They use these talents to transform into hulking and adept versions of themselves known as the "Monstars".
Deciding they need help, the Looney Tunes pull Jordan into their universe as he golfs withBill Murray,Larry Bird, and Jordan's assistant, Stan Podolak, where Bugs explains their situation to Jordan. However, Jordan is initially reluctant to help, but later agrees after a confrontation with the Monstars, and forms the "Tune Squad” with the Tunes; they are joined byLola Bunny, with whom Bugs is enamored. To prepare himself, Jordan sends Bugs andDaffy Duck to his house to obtain his basketball gear. Jordan's children aid them and agree to keep the game a secret, while Stan, searching for Jordan, notices Bugs and Daffy, follows them to their world, and joins the team. Meanwhile, the incapacity of the five players results in a nationwide panic that culminates in the season's suspension. The players unsuccessfully try to restore their skills through various methods.
The game between the Tune Squad and the Monstars commences, with Swackhammer arriving to observe. The Monstars dominate the first half, lowering the Tune Squad's morale. During halftime, Stan surreptitiously learns how the Monstars obtained their talent and informs the Tune Squad. Disguising a bottle of water as "secret stuff", Bugs and Jordan motivate the Tune Squad, who improve in the second half using their cartoon antics. During atime-out, Jordan raises the stakes with Swackhammer: if the Tune Squad wins, the Monstars must relinquish their stolen talent, and if the Monstars win, Jordan will spend the rest of his life being Moron Mountain's newest attraction. On Swackhammer's command, the Monstars play more aggressively, injuring most of the Tune Squad.
With only ten seconds left in the game, the Tune Squad is down by one point and one player, with only Jordan, Bugs, Lola, and Daffy still able to play. Murray unexpectedly arrives and joins the team. In the final seconds, Jordan gains the ball with Murray's assistance but is pulled back by the Monstars. On Bugs' advice, Jordan uses cartoon physics to extend his arm and achieve aslam dunk, winning the game with abuzzer beater. After Swackhammer scolds the Monstars for their failure, Jordan helps them realize that they only served him because they were once smaller. Having had enough of their boss's behavior towards them, the Monstars insert Swackhammer inside a missile that sends him to the moon. After relinquishing their stolen talent, the Nerdlucks decide to join the Tunes, while Jordan and Stan return to Earth and return the talent to the five players, whose remarks convince Jordan to return to the NBA.
The Nerdluck voices include Jocelyn Blue as their orange leader, Pound, Charity James as the dim-witted blue Blanko, June Melby as the neurotic green second-in-command Bang, Colleen Wainwright as the diminutive red Nawt, and producerIvan Reitman's daughter,Catherine, as the eccentric purple Bupkus. Their transformed "Monstar" versions are voiced by Darnell Suttles (Pound), Steve Kehela (Blanko),Joey Camen (Bang),Dorian Harewood (Bupkus), andT.K. Carter (Nawt). Wainwright also voicesSniffles, Kehela also voices Bertie's announcer voice, andFrank Welker voices Jordan's bulldog, Charles.[8]
Production
Development
Space Jam producerIvan Reitman in 2011. A conversation between him and a Nike executive sparked the idea of a film starringMichael Jordan andBugs Bunny.
In 1992 and 1993, twoSuper BowlNike ads, "Hare Jordan" and "Aerospace Jordan" respectively, aired on television and featuredMichael Jordan with the characterBugs Bunny.[4][11]Wieden+Kennedy creative directorJim Riswold conceived the "Hare Jordan" campaign following the popularity of advertisements where Jordan played withMars Blackmon (played bySpike Lee), a character fromShe's Gotta Have It (1986); he chose Bugs Bunny for his next campaign because the character was his "childhood hero".[4] Directed byJoe Pytka, "Hare Jordan" took six months and a $1 million budget to make.[4] It was hindered by reluctance from Warner Bros. to allow Nike to modernize Bugs' character; however, the commercial success of both ads "was a nice bit of research for Warner Bros. to understand that the Bugs character still had relevance and to tie it in with Michael", explained Pytka.[12] This led to the company green-lighting a film featuring Jordan and Bugs, which came out of a plane meeting between a Nike executive and producerIvan Reitman.[11][4] Jordan was offered movie deals previously, but his manager,David Falk, turned them all down because he felt the basketball icon could only act as himself.[4]
The project was closed when Jordan retired from basketball in 1993, only to be reopened in 1995 when Jordan returned as a basketball player.[13] Falk pitched the idea to several major studios, without a story or script written.[4] One of them was Warner Bros., which tried to create more "adult, sophisticated material" that deviated from the formula set byDisney in the animated film market.[14] After Warner Bros. initially rejected Falk's pitch, he called the consumer products division leader, Dan Romanelli, reacting in surprise the studio would turn down a project having potential of high-selling merchandise.[4]
Pytka was informed about the project only months before the start of principal photography; in addition to being hired as director, he also revised the script, including writing a scene where Jordan hits a home run after he returns to Earth that was filmed, but ultimately never used.[12]Spike Lee was also interested in helping Pytka with the screenplay, but Warner Bros. blocked him from the project out of dissatisfaction from how he fundedMalcolm X (1992).[12]
Casting
According to Pytka, it was difficult to get most actors involved withSpace Jam due to its odd premise: "I mean, they're going to work with an animated character and an athlete — are you serious? They just didn't want to do it."[12] BeforeWayne Knight was cast as Stan, his initial choices wereMichael J. Fox andChevy Chase, whom he had worked with onDoritos commercials; Warner Bros. rejected both actors.[12]Jason Alexander also turned down the role.[15]Nathan Lane said Pytka rejected him for the part because he appeared "too gay."[16]
The easiest actors to obtain were the NBA players, except forGheorghe Mureșan.[12]Bill Murray's appearance was present in the script from the beginning, but the filmmakers were unable to book him until filming started; Murray held out until Jordan personally asked him to be in the film.[17][18]
Reitman, serious about the voice actors for the establishedLooney Tunes characters being far better than their original voice actor,Mel Blanc, and not just replications, was very involved in the voice casting.[19]Joe Alaskey, one of Blanc's successors since the latter's death, was put by Reitman through a set of auditions, which lasted for months until Alaskey grew tired of auditioning and backed out from the project.[20]Billy West learned ofSpace Jam through Reitman onThe Howard Stern Show, who was producing Stern's filmPrivate Parts (1997). Reitman was impressed by West's voice talent and asked him if he could audition forSpace Jam. West accepted, and after doing an audition, he landed the roles of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.[21] The casting directors originally planned several voice cameos; however, that did not work out, andDanny DeVito ended up being the only celebrity voice actor in the film, which was for Mr. Swackhammer, who was originally planned to be played byJack Palance.[19] Swackhammer was also planned to be a live-action character until the very final days of development, withDennis Hopper possibly playing the role due to his friendship with Pytka.[14]
One thing I heard was that Ivan Reitman, when they were thinking about going ahead with this movie, had phoned upRobert Zemeckis aboutWho Framed Roger Rabbit and asked, "Do you have any advice on what we should do to make a movie like this?" And he said,"Don't do it, it nearly killed me."
The Classic Animation faction of Warner Bros., which animated the commercials and was located inSherman Oaks, Los Angeles, was originally planned to be the only company responsible forSpace Jam. However, after only a week, the animation work was so complicated that Warner Bros. contacted more studios, including reassigning the Feature Animation division inGlendale from working onQuest for Camelot (1998) toSpace Jam. Ten of Classic Animation's members, including the production's animation directorTony Cervone, were taken out of the faction to become involved all throughout production, and development artists were reassigned to animating jobs, including supervising animator Bruce Woodside, who had little faith in the project: "Like so many other animators, I adore the classic Warner Bros. characters, but I really had little hope that tying them to the massive anchor of an apparently doomed marketing scheme could actually give them a successful second life in features".[14] Other animators and artists working on the film included Chuck Gammage,[22] Darren Vanderburg,[23][24] Dave Spafford,[25][26] Denis Couchon,[27] Neil Boyle,[28] Pepe Valencia,[29]Tom McGrath,[30] and Uli Meyer.[31][32]
After Cervone was hired as animation director,Jerry Rees contactedBruce W. Smith about being another animation director on the film; Rees was fired by the time Smith joined, and Pytka hired Smith to direct the animation sequences alongside Cervone.[14] Before January 1996, when animation production was put into overdrive, none of the animators' drafts or concepts for how the film should look met with Reitman's approval;[33] Bill Perkins joined that month as animation art director, and when first arriving at the Sherman Oaks division, "we only had around eight months to do about 52 minutes of animation" and "it was just kind of a little skeleton crew."[14] Cervone highlighted Reitman's role as supervisor: "It started off as a string of gags with no structure, and he helped a lot with that."[34] The drafting process involved the animators and artists using the original cartoons as references.[33] Ultimately, they went withBob Clampett's style of animation due to being wilder thanChuck Jones' style.[35]
Production ofSpace Jam totaled around 19 months, with filming taking up ten of them;[14] this was half the time of any other film of its kind according to Smith.[36] The animation was done at a veryquick pace by more than 700 workers from 18 studios in London, Canada, California and Ohio,[14][36] starting January 1996 by the recently joined producers Ron Tippe andAllison Abbate.[37] In trying to track the huge amount work done at the 18 studios, Tippe hung stills of all the shots throughout the Feature Animation faction's hallways, with completed ones marked in red.[38]
Features about the film's production, including one from the official website, emphasized its state-of-the art computer technology when it came to itslive-action/animation hybrid; "this film could have not been made two years ago," claimed Cervone in 1996.[33] Due to its mixture of various art mediums as well as the "broad sense of humor and entertainment" unique to theLooney Tunes, Smith consideredSpace Jam an important part of diversifying the animation industry.[39]Space Jam broke the record for amount of composited shots in a featured film,[40] "roughly 1,043" according to Tippe,[13] as well as a record number of FX shots, with around 1,100 in a single 90-minute film;Independence Day (1996), released the same year, had 700 FX shots within two hours of screen time.[11] Tippe claimed the film would have, at most, "multiple characters, multiple levels of effects and, in some cases, up to 70 elements" in one shot.[41]
Filming
Space Jam was one of the first-ever productions to be shot on avirtual studio.[14] Jordan filmed in a 360-degreegreen screen room withmotion trackers; around him were green-suitedNBA players and improv actors from the Groundlings Theatre and School serving as placement identifiers for the animated characters, with a CGI background replica of a real-life setting chroma-keyed in.[14][42][33] Although Bill Murray initially came in only to work on the golf course scene, he then wanted to be in the climactic basketball game after Pytka showed him the process of how he directed the live-action/animation scenes.[12]
Concept drawings and discussions between the animators and Pytka about how the animation would be incorporated into the live-action shots took place on set during shooting, and re-writes to the script would be done daily.[14] As an experienced commercial and music video director working on a sports film, Pytka took on fast, unlimited camera movements andDutch angles;[33][14] this made integrating the characters into the shots challenging for the animators.[33] To connect the real and animated worlds together, blue-screen shots of miniatures byVision Crew Unlimited were used; these include aChristo-inspired interpretation ofThe Forum arena for exterior shots, city rooftops for a transition scene with a wide skyline view of Chicago serving as the chroma-keyed background,[43] and space ship parts initially produced byBoss Film Studios for aPhilip Morris advertisement.[38]
Space Jam was one of the earliest animated productions to use digital technology. 2D animation and backgrounds were first done on paper with pencil at the Sherman Oaks studio before being scanned intoSilicon Graphics Image files throughCambridge Animation Systems' software Animo and were then sent toCinesite via aFile Transfer Protocol, for its team to touch upon, digitally color, and composite into shots inPhotoshop before being sent back to Sherman Oaks.[38] Unlike previous projects that used theCineondigital film system, Cinesite used the quicker Inferno and Flame systems forSpace Jam.[38] The film's Hollyrender farm consisted of 16central processing units, fourgigabytes ofshared memory, and took up one million dollars of the film's budget, "on top of which the deskside boxes had 256 megabytes of RAM to splurge on whatever scene you needed to create and render," explained Privett.[43]
Cinesite had begun developingproprietary software for motion tracking when working onUnder Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), which involved most of its shots incorporating a digital background; this made the company prepared forSpace Jam, which consists of a bunch of moving camera shots with 3D backgrounds to be added.[38] The CGI backgrounds moved around with the motion trackers via Cinesite'sproprietary software Ball Buster, which identified the markers through algorithm.[38] To avoid mistakes in the visuals as much as possible, Cinesite artists worked on the film by frame instead of viewing each shot as a whole; those, such as Jonathan Privett were dissatisfied with the method, primarily because it put them under much pressure: "We much preferred the good old fashioned run-at-24-fps, just-as-the-viewer-sees-it approach."[38]
Backgrounds
The design of the stadium was heavily dictated by that of the film's many characters, and it was such a long process that it went through 94 revisions, explained Cinesite digital effects supervisor Carlos Arguello: "Tasmanian Devil was brown so we couldn't have a wooden brown upper level, and there were so many colorful characters, and Michael Jordan and everybody had to look good in all the scenes."[43]
For scenes that take place in the stadium, shortcuts were made. Forcrane shots of the crowd of 15,000 people in the final basketball sequence, it was created with live-action extras, cloned animated crowd members, and a few computer-generated characters walking around the aisles in the stadium.[40] When these shots involved camera movements, a few 2D extras were animated to reflect the angle of the camera, but much lighting was added to distract from the crowd, thus minimizing this work.[43] The reflections of the floor on the gym were also "fake[d]" asraytracing would've meant rendering it for four days per a few frames.[43]
Characters
Abbate suggested the hurried workflow of the animators bled into the character animation, resulting in a quick-witted style theLooney Tunes cartoons are most known for.[13]
Although the animators had to work with almost 100 characters, they were the most focused on Bugs and Daffy not only because they were principal characters, but also because they were the most recognizable Warner Bros. characters to general audiences.[19]Sculpting was incorporated the most on Bugs and Lola, including in "beauty shots" or sequences where Bugs and Lola are together.[43] Perkins conceived the idea of the villains being secondary colors, as the main Looney Tunes were either primary colors, black, or brown.[33]
There was extensive experimentation withmotion blur with the 2D characters, particularly Tweety; as Simon Eves explained, "The workflow was that an artist would track some specific points on the sequence of 2D character-on-black that came from the animation house, and I think it was able to take a basic roto shape as well, and then it would generate an interpolated motion vector field which could be applied as a variable directional blur. The field would deform based on the relative motion of the tracking points on the camera, to produce more accurate blur as the character deformed."[38]
Warner Home Video released the film onVHS,DVD, andLaserDisc on March 11, 1997.[46] The VHS tape was reprinted and re-released through Warner Home Video's catalog promotions:The Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary Celebration (1998),Century Collection (1999),Century 2000 (2000) andWarner Spotlight (2001). The film was re-released on DVD on July 25, 2000. On October 28, 2003, the film was once again re-released as a 2-disc, special-edition DVD including newly made extras such as a commentary track, a featurette, production notes, and an hour of previously releasedLooney Tunes shorts and a TV special.
On November 6, 2007,Space Jam was featured as one of four films in Warner Home Video's 4-Film Favorites: Family Comedies collection DVD (the other three beingLooney Tunes: Back in Action—which was released seven years afterSpace Jam—Osmosis Jones andFunky Monkey). On February 8, 2011, the first disc of the previous 2-disc edition was released by itself in a film-only edition DVD and on October 4, the film was released for the first time in widescreen HD onBlu-ray which, save for theLooney Tunes shorts, ported over all the extras from the 2003 2-disc edition DVD.
A double DVD release, paired withLooney Tunes: Back in Action, was released on June 7, 2016.[47] On November 15, 2016, Warner Bros. released anotherSpace Jam Blu-ray to commemorate the film's 20th anniversary.[48]
Space Jam later expanded into amedia franchise which includes comics, video games and merchandise. TheSpace Jam franchise is estimated to have generated$6 billion in total revenue. This includes a wide variety of merchandise, such asAir Jordans,Bugs Bunny shirts,Happy Meals,Mugsy Bogues jerseys, andTweety gowns.[49]
The film was adapted into agraphic novel published byDC Comics through their imprint "Warner Bros. Family Entertainment Reading" that published the "Looney Tunes", "Tiny Toon Adventures", "Animaniacs" and "Pinky & The Brain" monthly comic books. The special issue was written by David Cody Weiss and drawn by Leonardo Batic.[50]
Space Jam grossed $90.5 million in the United States, and$159.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $250.2 million.[52]
Domestically, it debuted to $27.5 million from 2,650 theaters, topping the box office. The film then made $16.2 million in its sophomore weekend but it dropped to second place behindStar Trek: First Contact and $13.6 million in its third place behindStar Trek: First Contact and101 Dalmatians.[5]
In China, the film was released in 1997 and grossedCN¥24.1 million.[53]
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes,Space Jam holds an approval rating of 43% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "While it's no slam dunk,Space Jam's silly, Looney Toons-laden slapstick and vivid animation will leave younger viewers satisfied – though accompanying adults may be more annoyed than entertained."[54]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[55] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[56]
Roger Ebert andGene Siskel of theChicago Sun-Times andChicago Tribune both gaveSpace Jam a thumbs up,[57] although Siskel's praise was more reserved.[58] In his review, Ebert gave the film three-and a-half stars and noted, "Space Jam is a happy marriage of good ideas—three films for the price of one, giving us a comic treatment of the career adventures of Michael Jordan, crossed with aLooney Tunes cartoon and some showbiz warfare. ... the result is delightful, a family movie in the best sense (which means the adults will enjoy it, too)."[57] Siskel focused much of his praise on Jordan's performance, saying, "He wisely accepted as a first movie a script that builds nicely on his genial personality in an assortment of TV ads. The sound bites are just a little longer."[58]Leonard Maltin also gave the film a positive review (three stars), stating that "Jordan is very engaging, the vintage characters perform admirably ... and the computer-generated special effects are a collective knockout."[59]Todd McCarthy ofVariety praised the film for its humor as well as the Looney Tunes' antics and Jordan's acting.[60]
AlthoughJanet Maslin ofThe New York Times criticized the film's animation, she later went on to say that the film is a "fond tribute to [theLooney Tunes characters'] past."[7] Michael Wilmington of theChicago Tribune complained about some aspects of the movie, stating, "...we don't get the co-stars' best stuff. Michael doesn't soar enough. The Looney Tunes don't pulverize us the way they did whenChuck Jones,Friz Freleng orBob Clampett were in charge." Yet overall, he also liked the film, giving it 3 stars and saying: "Is it cute? Yes. Is it a crowd-pleaser? Yup. Is it classic? Nope. (Though it could have been.)"TV Guide gave the movie only two stars, calling it a "cynical attempt to cash in on the popularity of Warner Bros. cartoon characters and basketball player Michael Jordan, inspired by a Nike commercial." Margaret A. McGurk ofThe Cincinnati Enquirer gave the film2+1⁄2 stars out of four writing, "Technical spectacle amounts to nothing without a good story."[61]
According to author Kevin Sandler, critics disliked the film's representation of theLooney Tunes characters' personalities. Sandler stated, "Space Jam appear[s] to have replaced identity and irreverence with milquetoast and merchandising. This decontextualization has turned each character into a soulless, calculated, and crass commercial entity, a set of mannerisms and catchphrases without point or purpose. The comedy no longer springs from a conflict between opposing personalities; they are now all friends living in someplace called 'Looney Tune Land'. Instead, the comedy comes from the characters going out of character or reprising old scenes out of context."[62][63] VeteranLooney Tunes directorChuck Jones was critical of the film and its premise, opining that Bugs Bunny would not have enlisted help from others in resolving a conflict, and that Porky Pig would never say, "I wet myself."[64] During a dinner celebration with the animation staff ofSpace Jam and Warner Bros. executives, he was asked to deliver a congratulatory speech to the animators' work, but upon instead sharing his opinions on the film, was forcefully escorted off the lot by security.[65][66]Looney Tunes: Back in Action directorJoe Dante disliked the film's representation of theLooney Tunes brand and the characters' personalities, and later developedBack in Action to more closely represent said personalities.[67]Back in Action writerLarry Doyle described the film as "awful".[68]
Nomination: Best Family Feature- Animation or Special Effects
Legacy
Cultural influence
The Monstars make a cameo in thePinky and the Brain episode "Star Warners". Jordan, who was a spokesman forMCI Communications before the film was made, would appear with theLooney Tunes characters (as his "Space Jam buddies") in several MCI commercials for several years after the film was released before MCI merged withWorldCom and subsequentlyVerizon Communications.[69] Bugs had previously appeared with Jordan as "Hare Jordan" in Nike ads for the Air Jordan VII and Air Jordan VIII.[70][71] In the next theatricalLooney Tunes film,Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Jordan appears in archive footage from this film as one of the disguises of Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin). In 2013,Yahoo! Screen released a parody ofESPN's30 for 30 about the game shown in the film. The short dates the game as taking place on November 17, 1995, although Jordan's real-life return to basketball when it occurred on March 18.[72] In April 2019, the websiteSBNation ran amockumentaryApril Fools Day episode of its popular Rewinder series on Jordan's climactic shot.[73] The Nerdlucks appeared in theTeen Titans Go! original filmTeen Titans Go! See Space Jam which aired onCartoon Network on June 20, 2021, and was released on digital on July 27, 2021.[74]
The film's official website, spacejam.com, was created in 1996 alongside promotion of the film, and remained unchanged but active for 25 years prior to the release of the film's sequel, an unusual aspect to film promotion websites. The site was one of the earliest film promotion websites, and included a number of unrefined web design facets, such as heavy use ofanimated GIFs. While the site's content had been moved under Warner Bros.'s site around 2003, the site's design gained a resurgence of interest around 2010 as an historical artifact of the early days of the web, and Warner Bros. returned the site to the spacejam.com address in response.[75] Following the release ofSpace Jam: A New Legacy's first trailer in April 2021, the website was updated for promotion of the new film, though the 1996 content remained available as a separate landing page.[76]
A television filmcrossover withTeen Titans Go!,Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam, aired onCartoon Network in June 2021. The film features theTeen Titans meeting the Nerdlucks and providing humorous commentary over the original film. The movie's length is slightly abridged, omitting the opening credits and several scenes that do not feature the Looney Tunes, and the soundtrack is replaced by an original score.[77]
A sequel toSpace Jam was planned as early as 1996. As development began,Space Jam 2 was going to involve a new basketball competition withMichael Jordan and the Looney Tunes against a new alien villain named Berserk-O!. ArtistBob Camp was tasked with designing Berserk-O! and his two henchmen.Joe Pytka would have returned to direct while Cervone and his creative partnerSpike Brandt signed on to direct the animation sequences. However, Jordan did not agree to star in a sequel, and Warner Bros. eventually cancelled plans forSpace Jam 2.[78]
In February 2014, Warner Bros. officially announced development of a sequel that would starLeBron James.[82] In July 2015, James and his film studio,SpringHill Entertainment, signed a deal with Warner Bros. for television, film and digital content after receiving positive reviews for his role inTrainwreck.[83][84][85] By 2016,Justin Lin signed onto the project as director, and co-screenwriter with Andrew Dodge and Alfredo Botello.[86] By August 2018, Lin left the project, andTerence Nance was hired to direct the film.[87] In September 2018,Ryan Coogler was announced as a producer for the film.[88] Filming would take place in California[89][90] and within a30-mile radius ofLos Angeles.[91] Prior to production, the film received $21.8 million in tax credits as a result of a new tax incentive program from the state.[89][92][93]
In February 2019, after releasing the official logo with a promotional poster,Space Jam 2 was announced to be scheduled for release on July 16, 2021.[94] Principal photography began on June 25, 2019.[95][96] On July 16, 2019, it was announced Nance was leaving the project because he and "the studio/producers had different takes on the creative vision forSpace Jam 2", and thatMalcolm D. Lee would serve as his replacement.[97] In May 2020, James officially revealed the title and logo of the film, asSpace Jam: A New Legacy.[98] On March 4, 2021, it was confirmed that the sequel would also feature various characters in the Warner Bros. film and television archive.[99]
Jordan was reportedly set to make a cameo inA New Legacy, as the makers teased the fans in June 2021 that "Jordan will appear in the film, but not in the way you would expect it." In fact, as shown in the film, he appeared in various pictures from his career and theSpace Jam film. In a scene,Sylvester claimed to have found Jordan, but he actually found actorMichael B. Jordan, who thus made the cameo expected to be made by the former Bulls star.
After the release ofA New Legacy, a third film was in talks by Lee withDwayne Johnson involved as the lead, transitioning on the sports genre from basketball toprofessional wrestling.[100]
^"Grammy- Past Winners Search". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. RetrievedOctober 28, 2013.
^"New Video Releases".The New York Times. March 7, 1997. p. B15.Archived from the original on December 29, 2017. RetrievedApril 4, 2021.
^Sagal, Peter; Chioke I'Anson, Chioke; Fletcher, Tiera (October 19, 2019)."Not My Job". NPR. RetrievedOctober 11, 2025.Chuck Jones was [one of] the original creator[s] ofLooney Tunes - Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, all the rest. He was invited to make a speech to the filmmakers who [had made]Space Jam, which used all his characters. Jones, who is, of course, a genius, hated the movie, thought it disrespected his characters and made his feelings known. He insulted the film with such vigor that he had to be escorted off the Warner Bros. lot.
