A 8.30.21 piece by Rolling Stone‘s Angie Martoccio reported that Dennis Rodman‘s wacky, wild-ass 48-hour vacation in Las Vegas in the middle of the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-1998 season would be chronicled in a narrative feature titled 48 Hours in Vegas.
That was four and 1/3 years ago. The Lionsgate project obviously languished and then petered out. Now it’s back ‘on” and ready to roll with LaKeith Stanfield as Rodman. The script is by Jordan VanDina with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller producing, blah blah.
The Rodman incident was covered in episodes #3 and #4 of The Last Dance, a ten-episode, ESPN/Netflix doc that streamed in the spring of 2020.
The Lionsgate project — is Rodman still exec producing? — will take some “creative license” with the actual story, blah blah. It will center around Rodman’s adventures in Sin City with his skittish assistant, “GM”, and chronicle their unlikely friendship.
“Dennis refused to follow the herd,” Lord and Miller said in a 2021 statement. “That is what made him a target and it’s also what made him a star. His weekend in Las Vegas is full of fun and hijinks, but it is also full of important questions about the way public figures, and workers are treated, especially when their individuality is expressed so vividly,” blah blah.
Bulls head coach Phil Jackson allowed Rodman to take a break in the middle of the NBA Finals. Alas, party-animal Rodman didn’t return within the timeframe he told the Bulls he would, prompting both Jackson and Michael Jordan to go to Vegas and retrieve Rodman themselves, blah blah.