By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The price of sports fame is terrifyingly high in the film that kicks off this fall.
Universal releases HIM exclusively to theaters September 19. Produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, it was directed by Justin Tipping from the Black List screenplay by Skip Bronkie and Zack Akers, with revisions by Tipping. Former college wide receiver Tyriq Withers (I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) stars along with Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker and Jim Jefferies, plus MMA heavyweight fighter Maurice Greene and hiphop artists Guapdad 4000 and Grammy nominee Tierra Whack, the latter three making their feature-film debuts. According to the official synopsis, Withers plays “Cameron Cade, a rising-star quarterback who has devoted his life, and identity, to football. On the eve of professional football’s annual scouting Combine, Cam is attacked by an unhinged fan and suffers a potentially career-ending brain trauma. Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, Isaiah White [Wayans], a legendary eight-time Championship quarterback and cultural megastar, offers to train Cam at Isaiah’s isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity influencer wife, Elsie White [Fox]. But as Cam’s training accelerates, Isaiah’s charisma begins to curdle into something darker, sending his protégé down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he ever bargained for.”
