Dennis Rodman’s 48-hour vacation to Las Vegas in the middle of the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-1998 season will be chronicled in a new scripted feature film, 48 Hours in Vegas.
The incident gained renewed prominence last year when it was covered in Episodes Three and Four of The Last Dance. As the doc recalled, Bulls head coach Phil Jackson granted Rodman the respite when he was underperforming mid-way through the season. Rodman, however, didn’t come back at the prescribed time, so Jackson and Michael Jordan had to retrieve him themselves (while Carmen Electra hid under a blanket behind a couch in their hotel suite).
“I need a vacation…”#TheLastDance continues Sunday, April 26 at 9:00 PM ET on ESPN. pic.twitter.com/fIiLZ75J7q
— NBA (@NBA) April 20, 2020
It appears that the new Lionsgate film — executive produced by Rodman himself — will take some creative license with the actual story: It will center around Rodman’s adventures in Sin City with his skittish assistant, GM, and chronicle their unlikely friendship. And per a press release, it seems like the movie will be set not halfway through the season, but in the middle of the 1998 NBA Finals, with the Bulls on the verge of completing their second championship three-peat.
48 Hours in Vegas is being written by Jordan VanDina, who recently wrote Animaniacs, while Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are on board to produce.
“Dennis refused to follow the herd,” Lord and Miller said in a 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.”
Added Lionsgate’s Nathan Kahane: “There’s only one Dennis Rodman. In 1998, there was nobody on Earth who’d be more fun — or maybe more dangerous — to party with. And yet that’s not even half of who he is. This movie takes you on an unforgettable ride with the myth, the legend, and also the man that Dennis is, behind everything you think you know. You think you know anything about ’The Worm?’ Just you wait!”