Much like the 40-year-old Hollywood star’s Wayfarer Studios, which he co-founded with billionaire Steve Sarowitz, currently owns the rights to Colleen Hoover’s controversial novel and its sequel, the independent studio reportedly also struck a deal with former NBA star Craig Hodges. Chasing the wave of success earned by the hit ESPN series The Last Dance featuring his former teammate Michael Jordan, Baldoni’s production house sought to bring alive the words on the pages of Hodges’ book ‘Long Shot: The Triumphs and Struggles of an NBA Freedom Fighter.’

Although the rumour mill has spun all kinds of narratives around the It Ends With Us drama, its undeniable commercial success on the silver screen has already set a precedent for itself, all thanks to the source material provided by Colleen Hoover’s book. On the contrary, as reported by Deadline, the Chicago Bulls alum’s documentary project hit a seemingly irreparable snag last year after Wayfarer shelved it. Since then, Hodges has been locked in a fight with Baldoni’s company over documentary rights.

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Origins of NBA star Crag Hodges vs Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios

The issue goes beyond Hollywood money and involves race and basketball. History appears to be distastefully repeating itself, as the three-point expert’s contractual skirmish with Wayfarer has barred him from bringing his vision alive from the pages of his 2017 book. The project (working titles: ‘The Lost Dance’ and ‘Whiteballed’) initially brought about the partnership between Hodges and British-Indian producer Jivi Singh. Baldoni’s production company eventually decided to finance it.

In the meantime, creative differences between the former NBA player and Wayfarer grew in the background. Hodges confessed to Deadline that while Jivi Singh was determined to do his book justice “with an accurate portrayal of the timeframe that the material covered,” Wayfarer launched into a debate “about framing Craig Hodges in a palatable way that the NBA would accept.” In his book, the sports star claims he was blackballed from the men’s basketball league in the early 1990s as he used his platform for justice. He also criticised his fellow Black athletes who “failed to use their considerable wealth and influence to assist the poor and disenfranchised.” Therefore, his experience and book’s “essence” varied from what Wayfarer was allegedly interested in pursuing.

Justin Baldoni’s company reportedly not interested in retaining the originality of Craig Hodges’ story

Hodges then directly mentions Justin Baldoni, stating that he was more focussed on chasing the hype established by the mini-docuseries chronicling the rise of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. “Wayfarer never seemed interested in that version of the story. Justin Baldoni was definitely interested in virtue signalling and piggy-backing off the hype of The Last Dance, but a lot less interested in the true weight of responsibility that came with accurately depicting the realities of being a Black man in America.”

More conversations fuelled by ethnic credibility targetted Singh’s position in the endeavour as Baldoni and Wayfarer’s CEO Jamey Heath, a fellow Black man, were eying Kirk Fraser, a Black director, to helm the project.

The media outlet reviewed a Zoom call in which the Wayfarer execs tried their best to convince Singh to walk off. “I promise you, that as much as feel you feel no one knows [Hodges’ life] better, no one knows it better than me. I’m his age, I’ve experienced it and walked through it. You might be a wonderful filmmaker, but the story is something that there might be some blind spots for you,” Heath told Singh on the call.

Singh followed up with a valid reply, “We’re all going to have our own subjective perspective, Jamie, but I asked you to articulate those nuances to me and you said to me, and I thought this was slightly disingenuous, rather than articulating them for me and allowing me to grow and understand, you said to me ‘Jivi, if you’d have experienced this, you wouldn’t need to ask that question’. To me, that felt like obfuscation, rather than you trying to inform and illuminate me to what it was that I was missing. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to do that.”

Justin Baldoni also weighed in. An It Ends With Us insider had previously slammed him for his performative “woke feminism” on the sets of the Sony movie in a Daily Mail interview. Sharing Heath’s belief that someone who isn’t a Black American cannot accurately depict the Black experience in America, Baldoni added, “Racism in America… is so unique to America that most people don’t quite understand it. So, when Jamie as a Black person tells you, as a non-Black person, if you’d experienced it, you wouldn’t have to ask that question. It’s coming from 50 years of pain and racism, of being thrown out of a swimming pool when he was seven years old and the white people had to drain the pool because a Black person touched it. It comes from a place you don’t know.”

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He continued, “We, as people who are not Black, can never put the emphasis on the Black people to tell us and teach us… this is a very important thing of why it’s unique to America, why the director does need to be Black, I believe, and from America.”

Money issues entered the chat

Kirk Fraser, who was at the top of Wayfarer’s list to direct to the project, consequently jumped ship because he didn’t want to be roped into a dispute. Ultimately, the reigns fell in the hands of Singh. He was believed to have completed shooting a rough cut of the documentary film. However, its content has now devalued as a cog in the machine as the raging fight for the film’s rights has become the controversial focus altogether.

The ordeal has only become messier as Baldoni’s company reportedly invested around $1.1 million into the film while covering other expenses for Hodges and the production. Wayfarer has demanded $50,000 upfront and $125,000 to finally release the rights, considering the NBA alum and Singh somehow sold the project to another buyer. However, the duo is against this and says they don’t have to pay the company under the existing contract, with creative control in their hands. Singh’s IFF Content banner, which Hodges had originally hoped would direct and produce the film, has issued a termination to Baldoni’s agency, but that’s another uphill battle.

“When Wayfarer offered to sell us the rights back for $50,000 plus $125,000 in add-ons they contractually, in our view, were asking us to pay for something we already own. I believe they knew that the ongoing dispute would make it effectively impossible to onboard a third party to help fund and complete the project,” Singh told the outlet.

NBA star and British-Indian producer still on the same page

On the other hand, Craig Hodges’ ultimate endgame here is for the project to see the light of day, as he vehemently hopes for Baldoni’s company to “step aside and relinquish any and all claims to the film.” From Day 1, his ideas and intentions for it have appeared to align with those of Jivi Singh. He admits that Singh’s film “is an honest and fair representation of the events and what happened to me.”