EXCLUSIVE: Turner Sports’ truTV and Max have acquired Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story, “a humorous look into the serious business of our country’s fastest-growing sport.”
The documentary produced and directed by Ashley Underwood and produced by Craig Coyne is set to premiere Friday, April 11 on truTV, followed by more airings on truTV and streaming on the Max platform. It serves an inside look at a sport that’s gone from obscure to hugely popular in a few short years, hot enough for Tom Brady and LeBron James to buy into pickleball franchises.
Dreambreaker “captures in real time the pro-Pickleball pioneers and volleys between the senior citizen nudists next door and the billionaire investors cashing in on America’s latest gold rush,” notes a release. “Winner takes all as two wealthy Texas entrepreneurs form rival professional pickleball leagues and feud over the world’s top players.
“As America’s newest pro sport segues into its terrible twos, emotions run high through failed mergers, re-mergers, boardroom brawls, and tense negotiations with a bevy of pro players caught in the crossfire.”
Director-producer Ashley Underwood
Film 45
Underwood, whose credits include producing Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Cohen’s Showtime series Who Is America?, took up pickleball herself during the Covid pandemic. She said in a statement, “truTV’s primetime focus on both live sports and comedy makes it a perfect fit for Dreambreaker. Pro pickleball exploded from a casual pastime into a high-stakes battleground, drawing athletes, agents and celebrities into a gold rush. What began as a lighthearted game turned into a fierce, fast-growing spectacle – amusing, intense and incredible to witness.”
In a previous interview, Underwood commented, “Pickleball is commonly viewed as this folksy community sport that your grandparents play and this film takes kind of takes that perception and flips it on its head. I hope audiences feel the heart and see the humor in it.”
Writer-producer Craig Coyne
Film 45
Coyne and Underwood teamed up as he was working on a piece about the pickleball phenomenon for Vanity Fair magazine. “The surge of investment into pro pickleball offers a unique look at how sports and the economy intersect,” he observed. “Instead of making a simple ‘capitalism is bad’ doc, we aimed for a balanced view of what happens—both good and bad—when money pours into the pockets of pro leagues and players alike.”
For the uninitiated, pickleball courts mirror the size of doubles badminton courts – 20 × 44 feet. “The net height is 36 inches at the sidelines and 34 inches in the middle,” says USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body. “The court is striped similar to a tennis court with right and left service courts and a 7-foot non-volley zone in front of the net (referred to as the ‘kitchen’).”
‘Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story’
Film 45/truTV/Max
Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story boasts the participation of tennis legend John McEnroe, NFL Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald, TV host Billy Bush, and Entourage creator Doug Ellin, among others, and some of the sport’s top talent: Anna Leigh Waters (ranked No. 1 in the world for doubles, No. 1 for mixed doubles, and No. 1 for singles by the Professional Pickleball Association) and Ben Johns (considered by many to be the greatest pickleball player of all time with 123 PPA titles).
Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story is a Film 45 Production. It is produced and directed by Ashley Underwood and written and produced by Craig Coyne; Mary Pilon and Seth Porges serve as co-directors. The executive producers are Giselle Rodriguez, Isabelle Lawrence Thomas, Robert Benun, and Price James. Marcella Serrano edited the film; music is composed by Dave Palmer.
