{"id":248372,"date":"2025-10-29T17:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/248372\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:58:15","slug":"paige-bueckers-to-star-in-sports-movie-jess-pearl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/248372\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers To Star In Sports Movie ‘Jess & Pearl’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Fresh off her record-breaking rookie year in the WNBA, Paige Bueckers<\/a> is looking to make her leap onto the big screen, as sources tell Deadline she is attached to star in the sports pic Jess & Pearl. Apple Original Films<\/a> is developing the film, which is based on an original idea by Scandal alum Zahir McGhee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tApple had no comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe White Lotus producer David Bernad will produce the movie through his Middle Child Pictures banner, alongside Wasserman\u2019s Lindsay Kagawa Colas and Tommy Alter.\u00a0Bueckers will executive produce.<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in the world of women\u2019s basketball, the film follows two phenoms who forge an extraordinary bond as teammates until fame, competition and the ruthless business of college athletics threaten to turn their friendship into an epic rivalry.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of college basketball\u2019s most decorated players, Bueckers helped lead the UConn Huskies to the 2025 NCAA Division I Women\u2019s Basketball Championship. She was selected No. 1 in the WNBA draft by the Dallas Wings and was recently named the WNBA Rookie of the Year and to the 2025 TIME100 Next list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMiddle Child is in post-production on the second season of the Emmy-nominated series Jury Duty and the Netflix film Little Brother starring John Cena and Eric Andr\u00e9. It is in in pre-production on the fourth season of The White Lotus, which has earned 66 Emmy nominations and 16 wins across three seasons.<\/p>\n

\n\tA co-executive producer on the Hulu series Reasonable Doubt, McGhee spent six seasons on Scandal, where he rose to co-executive producer. He went on to create and showrun Queens for ABC, starring Eve and Brandy, and previously developed Harlem\u2019s Kitchen, starring Delroy Lindo and Sheryl Lee Ralph. His writing credits also include Private Practice, Stumptown and For the People.<\/p>\n

\n\tBueckers is repped by Wasserman. Colas is repped by Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. McGhee is repped by UTA and Matt Johnson at JSS&K. Bernad is repped by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off her record-breaking rookie year in the WNBA, Paige Bueckers is looking to make her leap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[40575,49,48,116115,4658,82,630,116116],"class_list":{"0":"post-248372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-apple-original-films","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-jess-pearl","12":"tag-paige-bueckers","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wnba","15":"tag-zahir-mcghee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}