Shooting as Jordan Scored

James Stern figured he was uniquely situated to make a film about basketball legend Michael Jordan. As a part-owner of the Chicago Bulls, Stern estimated that he’s “seen Michael play about 500 times from the second row.”

So Stern, 40, went out and co-produced and co-directed (with Don Kemph) an Imax documentary, “Michael Jordan: To the Max,” which focuses on the dramatic final days of the former Bulls star’s last championship season, in 1998. The film opens in Los Angeles and Orange counties on Friday.

To be sure, Stern had credentials beyond being a Jordan fan. In the past decade or so, the Chicago-area native (he grew up in the suburb of Glencoe) has produced more than a dozen Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including the wildly successful dance-musical “Stomp,” “The Weir,” “Swing” and such recent revivals as “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “The Sound of Music.” And just before the Jordan project, he directed his first film as well, “It’s the Rage,” which just debuted on Cinemax.

The bookish, horn-rimmed Stern doesn’t seem to be the same person as the producer of 14 stage shows with a 10-film development slate whose life has been a nonstop shuttle among Chicago-New York-Los Angeles--with frequent puddle jumps to London to scope out the West End. (He also found time to accompany his wife, Kathryn, on her recent book tour for her novel “Another Song About the King” and to be there for the recent birth of their second child, a son, Satchell. And he never misses a Bulls at-home game, even in the hapless, post-Jordan era.)

The invitation to direct the Jordan documentary came as Stern was segueing into directing, for which, he explains, producing was just the preparation. With the connections he had made over the years, he was able to secure the rights to playwright Keith Reddin’s comic thriller “It’s the Rage,” about the crazy world of guns in America, and, impressively for a first-time director, sign up a cast including Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Gary Sinise and David Schwimmer. “It’s the Rage” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year,

“The original idea for the $7.5-million Jordan Imax film came from Don and Steve Kemph, who run Giant Screen Sports, a producer of large-format sports films. The words “giant” and “sports” would seem to define Michael Jordan, who invariably ended up in the top three (along with Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth) in lists of the top athletes of the century.

But the decision to capture Jordan’s magic on the court came with only seconds remaining on the clock as Jordan was about to retire. Connecting with Stern enabled the Kemph brothers to process a lot of red tape in record time. Stern was on a first-name basis with the NBA nabobs, Jordan’s agent and the legend himself.

Still, the season was slipping away with no deal signed. Stern and Don Kemph dug into their pockets and shot a half-million feet of film just as the Bulls’ 1998 season was ending. “It was a now-or-never proposition,” says Stern, who believed that this time Jordan really was calling it quits--the kind of news that makes grown men--and women--weep. “The first time he retired,” Stern explains, “was my second anniversary. I was watching his press conference on TV and sitting on the side of the bed crying. Then my wife came in and she started crying. He so informed our lives.”

This time there were no tears. Only a determination to get the Jordan experience on film before it was too late. “We couldn’t pass up this last opportunity to convey the physicality of Jordan on the court,” he says.

The basketball gods were with them, as the footage Stern and Kemph shot proved to be filled with the kind of drama that most sports filmmakers dream of. The Bulls’ 1998 season was a squeaker all the way. The playoffs against the Indiana Pacers came down to the wire, and the finals, against the Utah Jazz, were decided in a matter of seconds with the film’s star delivering the winning shot at the 11th hour in the final game.

“We struck gold,” says Stern, who then went off to direct “It’s the Rage” and returned to shoot 30 interviews with Jordan, his family and team members.

Kemph had originally written a script for the film that was a tribute to Jordan’s extraordinary career, and Stern says they would have made the film even if that last season had turned out differently. But the drama of the final championship took over the story, giving it a sense of immediacy and natural drama that neither could have foreseen.

What they’ve created, say Stern and Kemph, is a compact, one-hour inspirational drama that they hope will become a perennial. With a guaranteed run of several months--and possible reissues down the line--the Jordan Imax film can reach a much larger audience than most documentaries. And it makes good financial sense too, since the most successful Imax films (“Everest,” the recent “Fantasia 2000”) gross upward of $50 million, providing a handsome return to the film’s backers and profit participants (Jordan himself being a primary beneficiary).

“Oh yeah, Michael has points in the movie,” Stern assures us. (Jordan declined to comment for this story.) “As his agent, David Falk, said to me, ‘It’s not about the money, it’s about the respect,’ ” Stern says, and then proceeds to crack up.

“And I said to him, ‘When the day comes that I can say something like that with a straight face, it’s time for me to get out.’ ”

The Jordan Imax experience has worked so well that Stern will next bring “Stomp” to the extra-big screen. The English phenomenon had been passed on by every New York producer until Stern decided to fund an off-Broadway run based on little more than a five-minute tape. “My wife came in and saw the tape, and she said two words: ‘Do it.’ ”

He listened, and “Stomp” exceeded his or anyone else’s expectations, fueling a long-running off-Broadway show and almost yearly road performances. And, as with Jordan, Stern says, Imax is the perfect medium to convey the outsize percussive beat of the “Stomp” players.

For now, Stern says, producing will be consigned to the back seat--except as an “angel”--as Stern explores the next phase of his career. That is, unless Stephen Sondheim wants to do something, anything. Otherwise, he’s moved into the driver’s seat.

“Now it’s time to tell my own stories,” he says.

BE THERE

“Michael Jordan: To the Max” opens Friday at the Universal Studios Imax Theatre, Universal CityWalk, (818) 508-0588; and Edwards Imax Theaters in Irvine, Valencia and Ontario, (888) 332-IMAX.

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Movie Review: * Kevin Thomas reviews “Michael Jordan: To the Max,” in his Screening Room column, Page 36.