More Ric Flair - ESPN "30 For 30" Details: Length Of Film, If WWE Supports It, Stars Interviewed
As noted, ESPN is working on a 30 For 30 documentary on Ric Flair's legendary career. Sports Illustrated ran a story this week about the upcoming special, and reported that it will air in the next 12 months, possible in the fall. Rory Karpf, who directed past 30 For 30 documentaries including I Hate Christian Laettner and The Book Of Manning, will direct the feature.
It was noted that the special is in the editing stages and will be either 90 or 120 minutes long. There are still some interviews left to film and other archive footage that they are trying to secure. Many legends were interviewed for the film, including The Undertaker, Sting, Shawn Michaels, Ricky Steamboat, Jim Ross, Eric Bischoff, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. Flair's three living children were also interviewed, as well as Flair's first wife, Leslie.
As noted last November, Flair discussed the documentary on his podcast, Wooooo! Nation, and gave a preview about what to expect.
"Well, it's my whole life," Flair said. "It [has] a little bit to do with my airplane crash, of course, and then coming back from that. And then the titles and the championships and it touches a lot on my personal life, which has been up and down. Right now, it's perfect, but I had a couple rough years there. And it talks about my son, Reid. [ESPN] wanted to talk about him, how special he was to me. And then, a lot about Ashley, Charlotte, who is now the champion in WWE, the Divas division. And about my other two children, Megan and David. So, it was very nice. And then, it talked about where I am today."
Flair had also said that one of the biggest hurdles was getting WWE to allow ESPN to use their video footage. The SI story noted that ESPN secured a footage agreement with WWE before they started shooting, and Karpf said that WWE has been "very supportive with his requests."
"The WWE is very, very protective of their intellectual property," Flair said on his podcast last November. "[The project] is mutually beneficial for all of us, but it just took a while to get everybody on the same page and to work on it diligently for, I guess, it has been a year and a half now. And all of a sudden, it's coming to fruition."
Source: Sports Illustrated
William Windsor, damien demento and Chris Griffin contributed to this article.