Tuesday, March 5, 2024

LeBron James' SpringHill Company to Produce 3 Docs on Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, More


George Pimentel/Getty Images

LeBron James' production company has expanded its relationship with the History Channel for three new documentaries that will air on the network.

Per Selome Hailu of Variety, Springhill Company is going to produce three projects that include a documentary about Jesse Owens and Jim Thorpe.

"The SpringHill Company was created to tell important stories and, through this partnership with The HISTORY Channel, we're able to do that on a whole new level," James said in a statement included in the announcement. "With these documentaries, we want to share those meaningful moments and figures in history that matter with a whole new generation and continue to empower and inspire through storytelling."

Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics details the story of the American track and field legend at the 1936 Games amid calls from various countries, including the United States, to boycott the Olympics due to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany.

Owens became the first American athlete to win four Olympic gold medals in track and field. There was also an acknowledgement that in some ways he was treated better publicly in Germany than in the United States at that point in time.

"Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either," Owens said at one point after the Berlin Games.

Don Cheadle will serve as narrator for the Owens documentary. It will also include interviews with Owens' daughters, as well as athletes Carl Lewis, Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton and Christian Coleman.

The second documentary has a working title of Jim Thorpe. The multisport athlete became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal when he was victorious in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden.

Thorpe also played six seasons in MLB from 1913 to '19 and eight seasons in the NFL from 1920 to 28. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the introductory class in 1963.

There are no premiere dates for either project at this point. Details about the third project will be unveiled at a later date.

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