*It’s not how you start the game. It’s how you finish. Based on the book by LeBron James and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Friday Night Lights,” Buzz Bissinger, “Shooting Stars” is the inspiring origin story of a basketball superhero, revealing how LeBron James and his childhood friends become the #1 high school team in the country, launching James’s breathtaking career as a four-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
In the 1990s, a young LeBron James (Marquis “Mookie” Cook, in his screen debut) and his three best friends — Lil Dru (Caleb McLaughlin, “Stranger Things”), Willie McGee (Avery S. Wills, Jr., “Swagger”) and Sian Cotton (Khalil Everage, “Cobra Kai”)—called themselves the “Fab Four,” after the famed Michigan Wolverines’ “Fab Five” of that era.
From the moment we meet them, we realize this group of friends, under the guidance of coach Dru Joyce (Wood Harris; “Creed” franchise), is connected by more than basketball.
So, when the coach at the top basketball school in their district threatens to separate them by putting Lil Dru on junior varsity, the Fab Four decide to switch schools to be able to play varsity together, joining the team at a predominantly white Catholic school instead. The community takes this as an insult, but the boys’ dedication to each other is more important than anything else.
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(from left) Romeo Travis (Scoot Henderson), Lil Dru Joyce III (Caleb McLaughlin), LeBron James (Marquis “Mookie” Cook), Willie McGee (Avery S. Wills, Jr.), and Sian Cotton (Khalil Everage) in “Shooting Stars,” directed by Chris Robinson. Photo: Oluwaseye Olusa/Universal Pictures
With their new coach (Dermot Mulroney; “August: Osage County”), a disgraced former college coach seeking redemption of his own, the boys, along with former rival and new teammate Romeo Travis (newcomer Sterling “Scoot” Henderson), will face battles not only on the court but in real life, in their quest to become national champs, and will rediscover that what matters most about the game is the people playing beside you.
Shooting Stars is directed by Emmy nominee Chris Robinson (“Beats,” “Grown-ish”). The film’s screenplay is by Frank E. Flowers (“Metro Manila”) and Tony Rettenmaier (“Space Jam: A New Legacy”) and Juel Taylor (“Creed II”), based on the book by James and Bissinger.
Marquis “Mookie” Cook as LeBron James in Shooting Stars, directed by Chris Robinson. Photo Credit: Oluwaseye Olusa/Universal Pictures
The film is produced by Academy Award® nominee Rachel Winter p.g.a. (“Dallas Buyers Club”), Spencer Beighley p.g.a. (executive producer “Hustle”), LeBron James, Maverick Carter (“Space Jam: A New Legacy”), Jamal Henderson (Executive Producer, “The Shop”) and Academy Award® nominee and Emmy winner Terence Winter (“Boardwalk Empire”). The film is executive produced by Gretel Twombly. Universal Pictures presents a Springhill Company/Tangerine Pictures/Cold Front Productions production.
“Shooting Stars” arrives June 2, streaming only on Peacock.
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