Did you guys know that Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Piven made a movie nearly six years ago that involved the NBA, has a slew of famous co-stars (including Robert Downey Jr., Eva Longoria, Gerard Butler and Benicio Del Toro), and likely pushes the boundaries for what is considered acceptable in the realm of comedy? You might not even be aware of All-Star Weekend unless you follow Foxx or any of the people who were supposed to appear in the film. Filmed back in 2016, the comedy was targeted for release around the time of the 2018 NBA All-Star Game, and again the following season. Only, it remains shelved, and Foxx now gives us some insight into why.
Being a rabid NBA fan myself, I’ve been curious about Jamie Foxx’s All-Star Weekend, in which two truck-driving best friends (Foxx and Jeremy Piven) who win tickets to attend the celebrity-infused event of the title, only to get involved in various hijinx along the way to the game. During a recent interview on behalf of his new Netflix comedy Day Shift, though, we asked Foxx when we might see any footage from All-Star Weekend, or if the movie will ever see the light of day. And the Baby Driver superstar told CinemaBlend:
Man, it’s been tough, with the lay of the land when it comes to comedy, man. We’re trying to break open those sensitive corners where people go back to laughing again. And that’s why I think, even in this film, which is great is (that) the one thing we kept hearing in the screenings was how much people were laughing. So, hopefully we’ll keep them laughing and run them into All-Star Weekend, because we were definitely going for it.
Just how is Jamie Foxx trying to “break open” the sensitive corners that he mentions above? We don’t know for certain, because we haven’t seen All-Star Weekend, and can only go on the reporting, or previous comments that Foxx – who makes his directorial debut with the movie – has made. For the most part, it appears that Jamie Foxx went back to his In Living Color days of playing broad characters in All-Star Weekend. Like when Foxx appeared on YouTube in the make-up chair to play Cleveland A. Smith, a parody of First Take host Stephen A. Smith, that was going to be in the movie:
But when he appeared as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2017, Jamie Foxx revealed that he’d convinced Robert Downey Jr. to play a Mexican character. In his explanation, he referenced back to Downey wearing blackface makeup in Tropic Thunder, a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination. On the podcast, Foxx explained:
We all play different characters. I play a white, racist cop. I’ll show it to you. I’ll grab the thing and show it to you. Robert Downey Jr. plays a Mexican. I called Robert and I said, ‘Listen, I need you to play a Mexican.’ He said, ‘Dude, here’s the deal. Sure. Fuck it. Sure. Why not? Fuck it. Sure. Of course. Mexican. Whatever.’
Will a streaming service take a chance on All-Star Weekend, which also features actors playing fictional versions of LeBron James and Steph Curry? Maybe Jaime Foxx bringing it up in conversation will reignite interest in what sounds like a wild time at the movies.
