{"id":193300,"date":"2025-12-19T15:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/193300\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T15:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:49:10","slug":"the-secret-kobe-bryant-documentary-you-may-never-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/193300\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Kobe Bryant Documentary You May Never See"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKobe Bryant<\/a> didn\u2019t like what he was seeing. It was the fall of 2019, and the NBA legend was tucked inside an editing bay at an office in Irvine, staring at a roughly assembled two-hour cut drawn from tens of thousands of hours of footage he\u2019d commissioned during the 2015-16 Lakers season \u2014 his farewell tour. The material captured everything: the dunks, the jumpers, the no-look passes, yes, but also his life away from the court. Moments in the locker room at Staples Center. Evenings at home with family. And, in several haunting instances, scenes aboard his helicopter.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the cut didn\u2019t measure up. According to a source present at the screening, Bryant was visibly frustrated. \u201cKobe was like, \u2018Yeah we\u2019re scrapping that and starting over,’\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven so, everyone in that office must have understood the significance of what was being projected on that screen. Its working title was 20th Season, and it was an intimate record of the final year of one of the greatest athletes in modern history. At a moment when demand for prestige sports documentaries had been booming,\u00a0it was more than gold \u2014 it was a Hope diamond.<\/p>\n

\n\tJust a few months later, of course, it would become even more valuable. After the tragic helicopter crash that killed Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others, the footage would take on a sacred sheen, transformed into arguably the most precious sports footage in the world.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, to those few aware of its existence \u2014 Bryant\u2019s inner circle as well as a small group of Hollywood insiders \u2014 those thousands of hours of footage have become something like a holy shrine to a mythic figure. A slew of prominent producers and directors, including two Oscar winners, have lined up with offers to shape it all into the documentary Bryant once imagined creating for himself.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo far, though, none have signed on. According to the filmmakers and others familiar with the talks, they\u2019ve all run into the same stubborn obstacle: Vanessa Bryant<\/a>, Kobe\u2019s widow, who, it turns out, has her own very specific vision for what sort of movie should be made. And it\u2019s not a film anyone else seems interested in making.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s the white whale,\u201d says one top producer of Bryant\u2019s final footage. \u201cBut it can\u2019t hold a director, and it\u2019s been sitting out there with this eternal promise that never seems to materialize.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tBryant\u2019s offices at Granity Studios did not look like what you might expect. There were no jerseys or trophies decorating the walls, or even photographs of other historic sports icons. Instead, there were framed images of Walt Disney, Steve Jobs and John Williams. Bryant placed them there intentionally to signal \u2014 to himself and to those around him \u2014 that he was pursuing a different kind of greatness.<\/p>\n

\n\tBryant\u2019s ambitions were not unusual among sports figures \u2014 plenty of athletes have chased Hollywood after retiring \u2014 but the scale and seriousness of his pivot were different. He wasn\u2019t looking to do cameos, brand deals or vanity projects. He wanted a second career as a creator and producer, something that could stand on its own apart from basketball. Inside Granity, he treated that goal with the same intensity he once brought to Lakers practices.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn THR\u2018s Awards Chatter podcast in 2017, Bryant was asked what his life would\u2019ve looked like without basketball. \u201cI\u2019d be writing stories,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s just part of me and something that I love every bit as much as I have ever loved basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis first major Hollywood collaboration was Muse, the 2015 Showtime doc he made with Gotham Chopra, co-founder of the documentary company Religion of Sports. \u201cWorking with Kobe was both exhilarating and exhausting. He was as intense off the court as he was on,\u201d Chopra tells THR. Muse wasn\u2019t just Bryant\u2019s first serious Hollywood project, it was also the beginning of his relationship with Jake Bloch, the young director of photography he later hired to oversee the embedded crew filming his final season.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBryant discussed his doc Muse with co-producer Gotham Chopra (center) and Showtime\u2019s Stephen Espinoza in 2014. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrederick M. Brown\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tHis next project, the animated short Dear Basketball, pushed him further into the creative world he was building \u2014 and in a big way, winning a 2018 Academy Award. To Bryant, it was confirmation that the stories he wanted to tell \u2014 and the way he wanted to tell them \u2014 could resonate beyond the court. From there, he scaled up. He expanded his team at Granity Studios, developing multiple projects. ESPN ran his basketball-analysis series Detail. His scripted children\u2019s podcast, The Punies, was headed toward an animated TV series.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe was world-building and trying to win the public\u2019s imagination,\u201d says Kevin McCollum, the Tony-winning producer behind In the Heights, Avenue Q and Rent. In 2018, Bryant contacted McCollum about adapting The Wizenard Series: Training Camp, a children\u2019s book he co-wrote with Wesley King, into a Broadway musical. Bryant even explored working with Harry Potter director Chris Columbus on a film version.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the most ambitious project on his slate was the 20th Season documentary built from the footage chronicling his final stint with the Lakers. Along with Bloch, Bryant hired Jim Hession, a film editor who would later cut the 2023 Jon Batiste doc American Symphony, and Tony Hardmon, the cinematographer behind 2020\u2019s John Lewis: Good Trouble (both declined comment for this story, citing NDAs, as did numerous others contacted by THR).<\/p>\n

\n\tFilming was complicated. There were early disputes with the NBA, which enforces strict limits on who can shoot during games. \u201cKobe didn\u2019t ask for permission \u2014 for anything really. He did what he wanted,\u201d says a Lakers source. Eventually, the NBA agreed to an arrangement, granting wide access with one restriction: The crew could not fly on the team plane.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for what Bryant intended the documentary to be?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think the feeling was just shoot everything. Get a million hours of raw footage and then assess what he had and decide what to do,\u201d says the Lakers source.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother collaborator recalls some uncertainty but notes Bryant was aware that a prestige documentary could bring in revenue to support his expanding creative ventures. Bryant\u2019s appearance in 2019\u2019s The Last Dance, the Emmy-winning Michael Jordan doc series that sold for $20 million and became a global sensation, may have also been an inspiration. Although it wasn\u2019t released until three months after his death, Bryant was likely aware of what a game-changer that series was destined to become.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKobe would have wanted to double that [$20 million],\u201d says the Lakers source. \u201cAnd if The Last Dance won three Emmys, Kobe would\u2019ve wanted his to win five.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDear Basketball\u2019s Oscar win for best animated short film marked the first time a professional athlete had won an Academy Award.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShortsTV\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Bryant\u2019s helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside on Jan. 26, 2020, the public impact was immediate and overwhelming. Cable networks aired continuous coverage. Thousands gathered at Staples Center to pay tribute. Twenty thousand people attended the official memorial, and millions watched or streamed it online. Murals of Bryant appeared not only across Southern California but around the world \u2014 more than 600 in total.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the years since, it\u2019s been Vanessa, Bryant\u2019s widow, who has become the central figure shaping and protecting his reputation \u2014 a new and sadly unexpected role. Throughout most of Bryant\u2019s playing career, and beyond, she had maintained a relatively low profile. \u201cI wasn\u2019t privy to their conversations at home, but she only made a handful of appearances at Granity events,\u201d notes Craig Greiwe, the former chief strategy officer at Rogers & Cowan PMK who oversaw accounts for both Bryant and Granity (and is one of the few collaborators who did not sign an NDA). \u201cMostly red carpets. And I\u2019ve never once seen her speak publicly in support of any of the work he did after the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tToday, though, Bryant\u2019s legacy appears to be an all-consuming occupation \u2014 and one she has often pursued with an army of lawyers beside her. For starters, she sued Los Angeles County in a U.S. district court after first responders circulated graphic crash-site photos; she ended up being awarded $44 million. In 2021, Vanessa resolved a lawsuit \u2014 filed against her in Orange County Superior Court by her own mother \u2014 alleging unpaid wages as a nanny and a broken promise of lifetime support. And she prevailed in a legal dispute with Bryant\u2019s former business partner and onetime close friend Molly Carter over profits from his investment in the sports-drink company BodyArmor \u2014 a case that made international headlines when texts between Carter and Bryant entered the Orange County Superior Court record, including messages in which Carter referred to Kobe as a \u201cdouche nugget\u201d and called Vanessa a \u201cbitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBryant\u2019s business partner Molly Carter and executive producers Dan Goodman and Bill Masterson (right) flanked Bryant at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, where Dear Basketball screened.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMark Sagliocco\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n

\n\tCarter declined comment but according to Greiwe she \u201cwas one of the few people in the world who was always fiercely loyal to [Kobe] and to his vision, and that\u2019s why he trusted her,\u201d adding that he believes the released texts were taken out of context. \u201cThey were like brother and sister, and sometimes they fought like that. But they had each other\u2019s backs, and there\u2019s no question he trusted Molly to run his empire.\u201d (A spokesperson for Vanessa disputes this characterization, insisting that \u201cit is absolutely not true\u201d that Bryant and Carter were friends).<\/p>\n

\n\tAdds a veteran sportswriter who covered Bryant: \u201cI always heard that both in their marriage and outside of it he played the good cop and [Vanessa] was the bad cop. People were very wary of Vanessa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tToday, among those most wary of Vanessa \u2014 or, at least, of her creative vision \u2014 are the Hollywood directors and producers who\u2019ve approached her about the mountain of priceless footage she now controls. While Bryant\u2019s plans for his documentary may not have been fully formed before his death, hers are now crystal clear. Multiple sources say she wants to turn it into an epic romance, with herself as the central love figure.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cVanessa knows how she wants it set up,\u201d says one of those sources. \u201cThe construction of the film that she wants is a very personal story to her and to her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn all fairness, it\u2019s not an entirely uncompelling narrative. Kobe and Vanessa met on the set of a 1999 rap video. He was 21, already an NBA slam dunk contest winner; she was a 17-year-old high schooler. They became engaged six months later. Throughout the next 20 years, she sat beside him through triumphs and turbulence: his early rivalry with Shaquille O\u2019Neal; the 2003 sexual assault case involving a 19-year-old hotel worker (charges were dropped when the accuser declined to testify, and Bryant later settled a civil suit); his estrangement from his parents, whom he sued in 2013 for auctioning memorabilia without permission (reports have suggested that Bryant\u2019s decision to marry Vanessa contributed to tensions with his family). There were moments of turbulence in their own marriage \u2014 in December of 2011, she filed for divorce, with the couple reconciling in January of 2013 \u2014 but the two were clearly devoted to each other.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, editing those thousands of hours of priceless footage into a romantic idyll is probably not the movie Bryant imagined making \u2014 and it\u2019s certainly not the movie Hollywood wants to make. What\u2019s more, Vanessa\u2019s influence is not limited to the 20th Season footage. Her representatives have also moved to shape \u2014 or halt \u2014 other nonfiction projects about her husband. One high-profile example: a doc being developed by Thunder Road Films\u2019 Basil Iwanyk and Select Films\u2019 Mark Ciardi, which draws heavily on taped interviews Bryant recorded at 17. When an early version of that film was shopped to buyers last year, interest was strong \u2014 until WME, which represents the Bryant estate, privately warned that purchasing it could jeopardize any future chance at accessing the 20th Season material.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBryant (left in 2012 at the London Summer Olympics) was inspired to adapt the letter in which he announced his retirement into a short film. He enlisted legendary Disney vet Glen\u202fKeane to animate it and John Williams to compose the music. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChristian Petersen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was told by the agent \u2014 and he told the whole town this \u2014 that if you buy it, you\u2019ll never get a shot at the project that Kobe shot,\u201d the buyer tells THR.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis sort of strong-arming \u2014 or, from Vanessa\u2019s point of view, safeguarding \u2014 clearly hasn\u2019t gone over well in Hollywood, where Vanessa has been climbing higher and higher on many filmmakers\u2019 life-is-too-short list. \u201cWhy is it that so many people are terrified to talk? I think it\u2019s clear that her actions have spelled the destruction of Kobe\u2019s legacy and his vision, at least the one he articulated to me,\u201d says Greiwe. \u201cAll the things that he had planned for are gone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesman for the estate says that \u201cCraig Greiwe has never met [Vanessa] Bryant and is making unfounded statements,\u201d adding that Greiwe has previously made \u201cdisparaging remarks about Kobe and Vanessa.\u201d The spokesman insists that whatever documentary is ultimately released will be \u201cin line with Kobe\u2019s wishes and intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, as executor of the estate, Vanessa Bryant \u2014 who declined to be interviewed for this story \u2014is fully empowered to determine what, if any, documentary moves forward \u2014 and nobody could blame her if she ended up spiking the entire project. Sifting through hundreds of hours of footage of her late husband surely takes an emotional toll. She declined an interview for this story.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2020, Granity Studios shut down, abruptly halting nearly every creative project in development, (although, according to Vanessa\u2019s spokesperson, she kept as many staff members on the payroll as possible during Covid, and fulfilled \u201cKobe\u2019s projects\u201d). Those offices have since been taken over by a real estate brokerage firm. Former staffers \u2014 a publishing department, the development team and young employees who believed they were helping Bryant build something lasting \u2014 have scattered across the entertainment industry or left it entirely. The Granity Studios website, which is still accessible, is the only vestige of Bryant\u2019s grand ambitions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKobe knew he had influence, but what he really wanted was to help kids who felt alone and offer them a path,\u201d says McCollum. \u201cKobe\u2019s legacy is not just the stories but the ideas. If the Bryant family was interested, I would do anything to help get the musical made. It\u2019s still a worthy project. But I don\u2019t want to be presumptuous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLittle is known about where the thousands of hours of behind-the-scenes footage is stored, or who has access to it. What is clear is that the raw material capturing one of the most enigmatic, driven and influential athletes of modern times possibly sits on a hard drive somewhere, or maybe in the cloud, waiting \u2014 perhaps indefinitely \u2014 to be unlocked.<\/p>\n

\n\tScott Feinberg contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Dec. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kobe Bryant didn\u2019t like what he was seeing. It was the fall of 2019, and the NBA legend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,59391,40454,397,110351,110352],"class_list":{"0":"post-193300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-kobe-bryant","12":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-thr-investigates","15":"tag-vanessa-bryant"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}