Kobe Bryant didn't exactly win a great reception after opening up to The New Yorker recently (click on the link after the jump), so it may be deja vu all over again when he exposes his on- and off-court life on camera to a documentarian.
But Showtime announced Thursday that is indeed what the Newport Coast-based NBA superstar is doing in Kobe Bryant's Muse.
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Being shot now and airing on the cable network in the fall, Kobe Bryant's Muse aims to chronicle Black Mamba's preparation for his much-anticipated return to the Lakers next season. Showtime boasts the full-length documentary, directed by Gotham Chopra (Deepak's son), will be “an in-depth look into the life, inspirations and challenges facing one of the most successful and complex figures in professional sports.”
The film is promised to explain the 16-time NBA All-Star's motivation for trudging on through those nagging, late-career injuries as well as his thoughts on his life after basketball. Stephen Espinoza, Showtime Sports' general manager, claims Bryant is giving Chopra “unprecedented access.”
But the director concedes he was reluctant to take on the project because he's a lifelong Boston Celtics fan. In the end he says he found “Kobe's quest for greatness transcends rivalries.” And then some: Chopra and Bryant are co-executive producers “in association with Mamba Media.”
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.