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This story was originally published in April.
We are recirculating it now thatAiris available to stream onPrime Video.
Its been funny to hear, Oh, my gosh, this is your first screenplay.
he tells Vulture via video link.
I have a graveyard of unproduced screenplays too.
And why this one instead of the other ones?
Most of it is just the right people reading the right script at the right time.
And theres that three-minute clip inepisode 5about the Nike story.
It kind of breezes through it quickly.
But for whatever reason, the machinations of that clicked.
I thought,Man, this is a movie.
Sonny is truly a one-of-a-kind character.
Heartbreaking, he says.
I vowed never to write a spec again.
That all changed in 2020 with an epiphany born ofLast Dancebinge-watching and pandemic sheltering in place.
I just thought, Someone must have tried this as a movie already.
And I started poking around and no one had, Convery says.
He figured, Maybe it can get me a different job.
But my reps believed in it and sent it around.
And for whatever reason, there was a lot of interest.
It was kind of competitive, and I was trying to decide between a couple of different production companies.
Convery signed a deal with Mandalay Entertainment, the production company behindThe Last Dance.
Ben was very open about it.
We want to do a pass on the screenplay.
Its always the best idea wins.
Theres stuff were going to add, he says.
I was an unproduced screenwriter.
On set, Convery had a front-row seat to more on-the-fly alterations to his work courtesy ofAirs ensemble cast.
Chris Tuckers stuff is almost all him.
Jason Bateman is an Emmy-winning director forOzark.
He was doing a ton of invention, says Convery.
Then, on the last day of principal photography, Affleck took the writer aside.
He said, Were not going to arbitrate, were going to give you sole credit.
He said, Look, it was a spec script.
It was your story.
They paid it forward for us and were going to pay it back, recalls Convery.
Buoyed by the films buzz, Convery already has another sports-related project teed up at Skydance.
My biggest lesson over the last 13 years is theres just no finish lines, the writer says.
So the job is still the same as when I was a freshman in film school.
Youre sitting at a computer writing.
That part never changes.
After that, its really, which way is the wind blowing?
And who is going to read the script?
And is it the right time?
As exciting asAiris, so much of it is luck.
Look, I like the script and Im proud.
Its 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.
