Shamier Johnson (John Wick: Chapter 4) will play controversial Canadian athlete Ben Johnson in Hate The Player: The Ben Johnson.
The series is Johnson’s side of events and the character of his lawyer, played by Mark McKinney, breaks the fourth wall to tell viewers as much. It covers Johnson’s rivalry with Carl Lewis, who is parodied on the show with Andrew Bachelor playing the U.S. track and field star.
New Metric Media and Bay Mills Studios produced series for the past couple of years in Canada. It will air on Paramount+ Canada and GameTV early next year.
Lead Shamier Anderson had this to say about the legacy of Johnson:
“Everyone thinks they know the story of Ben Johnson and the scandal that has followed him since the 1988 Olympics, but they won’t know what hit them with Hate the Player. For me, this hits differently. I grew up in Scarborough, where Ben trained, where his name still echoes. He was a hometown legend. Yes complicated, but also someone people rooted for. Getting to do this alongside New Metric Media, who’ve been killing it in comedy, is a real honour, not just as an actor, but as an executive producer with my company, Bay Mills Studios.”
Ben Johnson contributed to the project with extensive research coming from Canadian author and journalist, Mary Ormsby. Principal shooting took place in Dark Slope Studios in Toronto.
SOURCE: Deadline.com
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