When Prime Video\u2019s, Words + Pictures\u2019 and Sadoux Productions\u2019 Novak Djokovic documentary, \u201cThe Wolf in Winter,\u201d releases on Aug. 20, it will close the book on a production nearly 10 years in the making.<\/p>\n
Jason Hehir, the director of \u201cThe Last Dance\u201d and \u201cAndre the Giant,\u201d was brought on in 2024. Catching up with SBJ\u2019s Rob Schaefer after a star-studded premiere last week in Manhattan, Hehir recalled his impression going into his first conversations with Djokovic\u2019s team at the 2023 U.S. Open: skeptical.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that he had really strong convictions, which is great for a filmmaker,\u201d Hehir said of Djokovic. \u201cBut sometimes when those convictions are more than strong and they\u2019re tyrannical, it\u2019s not good for a filmmaker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Djokovic is not listed as a producer on the project but clearly had input on the narrative. He referred to Hehir and producer Nina Krstic as \u201cpartners\u201d in a panel after the screening and recounted \u201cgoing back and forth with many versions\u201d of the film, trying to find a \u201cwin-win-win\u201d for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe days of doing a documentary about a high-profile athlete without their having some sort of involvement in the evolution of the project are done,\u201d Hehir said. \u201cThe most difficult challenge in my job now is not the telling of the story. It\u2019s how to thread the needle between satisfying the athlete, maintaining your own artistic integrity and informing the audience as best as possible and telling the story that you think is going to be the most interesting to a wide audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Details on the content of the film are embargoed \u2014 and this is not a movie review newsletter \u2014 so we\u2019ll let you decide how well that needle was threaded.<\/p>\n
But it continues quite an interesting year in the tennis documentary space, following Netflix\u2019s rollout of projects on Rafael Nadal\u2019s career (\u201cRafa\u201d) and the rivalry and friendship of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (\u201cChris & Martina\u201d). The ATP Tour is also set to release a four-part docuseries about its Rolodex of No. 1-ranked players in the coming months.<\/p>\n
Hehir is bullish on the demand for sports docs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very confident that the telling of sports stories is never going to be something that people lose an appetite for,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s an appetite for McDonald\u2019s, and there\u2019s an appetite for a really well-made New York strip. People are always going to have an appetite for something that a lot of care is put into and is really well done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Prime Video\u2019s, Words + Pictures\u2019 and Sadoux Productions\u2019 Novak Djokovic documentary, \u201cThe Wolf in Winter,\u201d releases on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9633,139,28],"class_list":["post-42001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-novak-djokovic","tag-amazon","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}