May 11, (THEWILL) – The trailer for Disney’s Rise, a film based on the true story of the Nigerian-Greek Antetokounmpo family, has been released.
It aims to bring the beloved basketball family, which produced the NBA’s first trio of brothers to win titles – Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis and Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Los Angeles Lakers’ Kostas Antetokounmpo – and their younger brother Alex, to the world.
The film, which will premiere exclusively on Disney+ on June 24, depicts the story of the Antetokounmpos’ parents, who fought to survive and provide for their five children after moving from Nigeria to Athens.
They were desperate to become citizens of Greece, but they were met with obstacles at every turn by a system that did not favour them. The brothers – Giannis (played by Uche Agada) and Thanasis (played by Ral Agada) – used to play basketball with a local youth team when they were not selling products to tourists on the streets of Athens with the rest of the family.
They discovered their amazing ability on the basketball court as latecomers to the sport and worked hard to become world-class athletes, together with their brother, Kostas (played by Jaden Osimuwa).
Giannis entered the NBA Draft in 2013 with the help of an agent as a long-shot prospect who would change not only his life, but the lives of his entire family. Last season, Giannis and Thanasis helped the Milwaukee Bucks win their first title in 50 years, while Kostas was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, the previous season’s champions.
Dayo Okeniyi, Yetide Badaki, Manish Dayal, Taylor Nichols, Ral Agada, and Uche Agada all star in the production. Akin Omotoso (the director of “Vaya”) directed the picture, which was written by Arash Amel (famed for “A Private War”) and produced by Bernie Goldmann (who produced the movie “300”).
Last year, portions of the film were shot on location in Sepolia, the Athens neighbourhood where Antetokounmpos grew up. Executive producers were Giannis Antetokounmpo and Douglas S. Jones.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
