‘Air’ Exists Because One Underemployed Guy in His 20s Saw ‘The Last Dance’

That guy? Screenwriter Alex Convery.

This is a must read for any and all screenwriters. It’s a Vulture feature on screenwriter Alex Convery who wrote the screenplay “Air Jordan” which made the 2021 Black. That was the third script he’d written which was named to the annual Black List (“Bag Man” — 2018, “Excelsior!” — 2020) which suggest that third time is a charm as “Air Jordan” came to life as the movie Air.

The movie was scheduled to stream directly to Amazon Prime, but audience response to test screenings has been so strong, they are releasing the movie theatrically in 3,500+ screens.

Here some choice excerpts from the article:

“It’s been funny to hear, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is your first screenplay. Congratulations!’ I have a graveyard of unproduced screenplays too. Since graduating film school, it’s been nine years of grinding away, chipping away, trying to write The One. And why this one instead of the other ones? I don’t know. Most of it is just the right people reading the right script at the right time.”

“I was locked up in those early months of quarantine, like everyone, watching The Last Dance,” Convery says. “And there’s that three-minute clip in episode 5 about the Nike story. It’s very macro. It kind of breezes through it quickly. But for whatever reason, the machinations of that clicked. I thought, Man, this is a movie.”

“My biggest lesson over the last 13 years is there’s just no finish lines,” the writer says. “So the job is still the same as when I was a freshman in film school. You’re sitting at a computer writing. That part never changes.”

“After that, it’s really, which way is the wind blowing?” he continues. “And who is going to read the script? And is it the right time? As exciting as Air is, so much of it is luck. Look, I like the script and I’m proud. But if Matt and Ben hadn’t read it when they did, if they weren’t looking to start this new production company that’s trying to make movies like this, who knows? It’s just right script, right place, right people, right time. You only get to control one part of that, which is right script. So focus on that. And hope for the best.”

I shared this article with my MFA thesis students last night because I incessantly make the same point Alex does: As a screenwriter, you cannot control anything except your writing.

Right script, right place, right people, right time. You only get to control one part of that, which is right script.

Here is a clip from Air along with the trailer:

For the rest of the article, go here.

Twitter: @alexconvery.