Count NBA MVP Joel Embiid among the athletes looking to make their way into the media industry.
The six-time NBA All-Star is launching Miniature Géant, a new production studio, in partnership with The SpringHill Company, the media company backed by LeBron James and Maverick Carter.
“We want to do as much as we can to inspire,” says Embiid, who has galvanized sports fans by overcoming injuries early in his career for the Philadelphia 76ers, which he joined in 2014. He adds: “I want it to be successful, but I want it done the right way. The whole goal is just to try to tell people stories, and use my platform to inspire the next generation.”
Miniature Géant aims to showcase stories of people who have taken nontraditional paths to success. The studio will look for projects that could include unscripted, scripted, audio and branded content. Embiid’s unique background — he was born in Yaounde, Cameroon and moved to the U.S. to play basketball at the age of 15 — will provide a sort of template for the sorts of subjects that might be worth examining in more depth.
Embiid takes to Hollywood as athletes from a wide variety of sports are in greater demand. Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions recently sold a minority stake to Peter Chernin’s North Road Co. And Netflix and Amazon have quickly become known for burnishing behind-the-scenes documentaries that take sports fans deep inside Formula One racing, among other big-league endeavors.
The company’s initial development slate includes a project in partnership with John Skipper’s Meadowlark Media, which is an adaptation of Sebastian Abbot’s nonfiction book “The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer’s Next Superstars.” The story follows a group of 13-year-old boys scouted out of millions in Africa to join a prestigious soccer academy. Embiid, recruited from his native Cameroon to play basketball in the US, is attached as an executive producer alongside Skipper and Deirdre Fenton. Other projects include a biographical documentary chronicling Embiid’s life story and rise from the streets of Yaoundé into NBA superstardom, which he will executive produce alongside Maverick Carter.
SpringHill is developing a specialty in telling sports stories with an emotional center. “The founding of this company is at the heart of what we do,” says Maverick Carter, in an interview. The company has developed a franchise called “Uninterrupted” that focuses on elevating athletes as creators. SpringHill recently launched Naomi Osaka and Stuard Duguid’s, Hana Kuma.
The SpringHill Company will provide production, development, and strategic resources to Miniature Géant. The arrangement marks the first time The SpringHill Company will focus storytelling on African audiences, in a bid to reach a new global market.
Although many sports figures are testing their appeal in media, Carter says he thinks Embiid offers a unique perspective. “You have to really want to build something, and Joel Embiid, I’ve gotten to know him personally, is very focused.” Embiid and The SpringHill Company are both represented by WME/WME Sports.
