Embattled actor Jonathan Majors will no longer play basketball player Dennis Rodman in a proposed film project, multiple sources tell CNN.
More than a year ago, Majors was cast to star as Rodman in the film, which would chronicle the basketball player’s infamous trip to Las Vegas during the 1998 NBA finals.
While an individual close to the movie – working title “48 Hours In Vegas” – cautions that Majors has not yet officially been dropped from the film, the source says that the actor will not be part of the project.
Last month, a jury found Majors guilty of assault and harassment of his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, during a domestic dispute.
Majors – who maintains his innocence – was convicted of one count of reckless assault in the 3rd degree and a non-criminal charge of harassment as a violation. He was acquitted on another assault charge and one count of aggravated harassment.
Along with the first source, two additional sources tell CNN that Lionsgate – the studio where the Rodman film landed in 2021 – has released the project back to its producers to allow them to find a new partner to produce the film.
Majors’ legal issues were not the only factor in the behind-the-scenes changes – while the “Loki” star’s troubles certainly complicated matters, the first source says that producers were in talks with a director whose plans were beyond the film’s budget, so Lionsgate allowed producers to take the project elsewhere to achieve their creative vision.
The producers are currently shopping around the film without Majors attached, the two additional sources say. And if the film ends up back at Lionsgate, the first source firmly states that Majors “will be let go.”
“I cannot imagine a world where this moves forward with Jonathan,” one of the two additional individuals close to the project tells CNN, noting that wherever the film ends up, Majors will not be its star.
Lionsgate declined to comment. The talent agency WME — which currently still counts Majors as a client — also declined to comment.
Majors parted ways with his management and publicist in April 2023 amid the accusations, and a representative who was working with Majors during his trial did not respond to CNN’s numerous requests for comment.
Immediately after his trial last month, Majors was dropped by Marvel, which had cast him to star in two upcoming “Avengers” movies, and which likely would have cemented Majors’ status as a household name. Majors had already starred in last year’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” as well as the Disney+ series “Loki” as a version of the character he was set to portray in the “Avengers” films.
Aside from the Marvel developments and the Rodman film, more of the actor’s projects are also in flux, CNN is told.
Weeks before his arrest in March, Majors was also cast in a movie at Amazon, “Da Understudy,” from director Spike Lee.
A source close to that project says that when “Da Understudy” was announced in the press, the project was in such early stages that deals weren’t closed yet. Regardless of Majors’ legal issues, the film may have never come to light, just due to the nature of the long development process. “This film is in extremely early deep development where the recent trial wouldn’t have been a conversation,” the source familiar with the film tells CNN.
A representative for Lee, and a spokesperson for Amazon Studios declined to comment.
Additionally, months prior to the accusations from Jabbari early last year, Majors received rave reviews at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival premiere of the drama, “Magazine Dreams,” a film in which he played a bodybuilder that was garnering early awards buzz and would likely have put Majors into the Oscars conversation. The film was planned to be released theatrically by Disney’s Searchlight in December, but in October, ahead of his trial, Disney pulled the film from its release calendar.
No new release date has been set, and Disney did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Source: CNN
