Kyrie Irving and “Uncle Drew” Set To Hit The Big Screen
At the All Star Break, the Cleveland Cavaliers are once again the “team to beat” in the NBA Eastern Conference. They are led by their three stars in LeBron James, the now out for 6 weeks Kevin Love, and “Uncle Drew” himself, Kyrie Irving. Not only is Kyrie Irving a star in Cleveland though, he appears to be taking his talents, and the character he helped to make famous, to Hollywood.
It has been circulating over the past few days that a deal is in place for Kyrie Irving to advance his role as the cross over-ing, wheeling, dealing, shucking and jiving, old school ball player known as “Uncle Drew” from the popular Pepsi soda commercial. Although the specific details are unknown, what is for certain is that Kyrie will be the star and that this will be a full length feature film. This begs the question though, will this be a good movie?
The commercials have been extremely well done and very witty, but what made them that way? Some will point to the fact that they expanded the “Uncle Drew” team by adding other characters. Others will point to the fact that they play off humor more than any other one particular thing. There are few who can indicate exactly what has made them so successful, but we can estimate what it would take to make this venture a successful one.
The first major element that has to be incorporated, is the fact that nothing can change. Uncle Drew and his premise of “getting buckets” must stay key. This could be done up to include a catchy and some what obligatory story line of course, as it will be a feature film, but it must stay true to the essence of what makes “Uncle Drew” what he is. This actually plays into the next facet that must be true in order for the venture to be successful, and that is the authenticity of the actual basketball scenes. When I think about “great basketball scenes” from movies, I think about many moments in the “Love and Basketball” movie, “Hoosiers”, and of course “He Got Game”, with Jesus Shuttlesworth himself. This film cannot and I repeat cannot be an adult version of “Like Mike” starring Kyrie Irving as “LIl Bow Wow”. In essence and to be clearer, the “balling” scenes have to be as authentic and real as possible. Lastly, I believe they must play to something that have already played to, and that is the incorporation of other characters to expand the team and brand of “Uncle Drew”. It would work well to include “Wes” or Kevin Love, especially since they are teammates already, and especially even a Ray Allen who appears in one of the latest ads as “Walt”.
As far as my opinion of the idea, BRILLIANT! What you have here is the convergence of three different sets of cultures to give you one gargantuan viewing audience. The mere volume alone should make this project a success as you have the “Pepsi”, Basketball, and Film crowd all attentive at once, which means crazy numbers. I think it will be a massive success, and it will only grow as the Cavaliers continue to win games and possibly a repeat championship.