As a creator of the popular ESPN 30 for 30 documentary film series, Bill Simmons helped bring many sports stories to life.
After being fired by the Worldwide Leader in Sports in May, though, and being scooped up by HBO in July, the sports personality may have just found the best way to perfectly marry sports and entertainment. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that one of Simmons' first projects at HBO will be a documentary about the colorful life of late pro-wrestler and actor Andre The Giant. After all, it doesn't get much bigger than that in sports entertainment.
According to the Post, 30 for 30 director Jonathan Hock — who was behind the lens for the series' films on the 1980 Miracle on Ice hockey team and college basketball coaching legend Jimmy Valvano — left ESPN to join Simmons at HBO and will work on the documentary about the former French farm boy, who turned into literally the biggest thing in pro-wrestling.
Hock and Simmons should have plenty of material to cover with the seven foot four, 500-plus-pound Andre The Giant, whose urban legends included drinking over 125 beers in one sitting to flinging Arnold Schwarzenegger as if he were a rag doll. The biggest attraction in the then-World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) even acted in the 1987 film The Princess Bride before his untimely death at the age of 46 in 1993.
"ESPN is contracting, and concentrating on live sports and highlights," an insider told the Post's Page Six. "HBO is going to have the serious, hard-hitting sports documentaries."
If this report pans out, it's an incredible way for Simmons to kick off his tenure at HBO.
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