WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP Trailer (NEW 2023)

 

Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) is a white basketball hustler who banks on black players underestimating his skills on the court. When he pulls one over on Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), his victim sees a lucrative opportunity, and they become partners in the con game, plying their trade across the courts of Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Billy has to keep one step ahead of mobsters, to whom he owes money, while staying on the good side of his "Jeopardy!"-obsessed, motormouth wife (Rosie Perez)

Standing in a nearly empty Venice Beach parking lot, memories are suddenly flooding back for Ron Shelton. At the location for the first time in over 25 years, the 71-year-old director looks around at one of the defining landscapes of his career. Not much has changed, other than the absent basketball courts and charming actors who were there with him as they took the leap to big-screen superstardom.

Sports movies are hard to get right, with many either coming off as too earnest or not original enough, but Shelton has made a career on creating a different kind of sports film, whether it be Bull Durham, Tin Cup, or White Men Can’t Jump, the anti-Hoosiers.

“I had the title before I had written a word,” says Shelton. “The foreign translation was even funnier. ‘Can’t Jump’ was translated in many foreign languages as ‘Can’t Score,’ like can’t score a goal. And to score a goal was [to] put it in, so it’s White Men Can’t Put It In in many countries. Oh, you’re upset with jumping?!”

On the 25th anniversary of White Men Can’t Jump, EW chatted with Shelton and star Wesley Snipes, who led the 1992 sports comedy alongside Woody Harrelson as Sidney Deane and Billy Hoyle, respectively, part-time streetballers and full-time hustlers. Read on for all the scoop on the movie’s unique audition process, why Keanu Reeves didn’t score the lead role, and who will lace up for the planned remake.

“I was just the white guy who could shoot.”

In his directing debut, former minor league baseball player Shelton hit a home run with Bull Durham. The film propelled Tim Robbins, Kevin Costner, and Susan Sarandon to new levels and even scored an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay for Shelton. After a foray away from sports with Blaze, Shelton was inspired to return to what he knew best.

“Even after making Bull Durham, I was just the white guy who could shoot,” the filmmaker tells EW of his place in his neighborhood following his breakout success. A regular in the local pickup games, Shelton drew inspiration from his time on the court. “I went one Friday and [the park] was chained up,” he remembers. “I said, ‘What happened?’ They said, ‘So-and-so got shot. Somebody went to the glove box.’ When someone says that, everyone goes running. He came back and shot the guy dead. I said, ‘What was the issue?’ He said, ‘Block or charge.'”

That story would make its way into the film, with Raymond (former NBA player Marques Johnson) not taking lightly to being scammed by Sidney and Billy. Armed with similar anecdotes and a personal interest in how players perceive one another, Shelton felt he had a movie.