Sport and Cinema.com

The Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame got under way today in Olympia, Greece, with the lighting of the flame at an official ceremony outside the famed Temple of Hera.

Baseball’s Midsummer Classic returns to Anaheim Tuesday for the third time since the All-Star Game began in 1933, but the event has changed quite a bit since the city first hosted the exhibition (in 1967 when the NL won in dramatic fashion on a Tony Perez home run in the 15th inning).

To help promote its biggest marketing campaign for a single event, the American cable television giant will look to illuminating the sport’s stars to draw in viewers.

Here are some of the marquee names that will play throughout ESPN’s 230 hours plus coverage of all 64 matches.

As part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” film initiative celebrating the network’s 30th anniversary comes this documentary from rapper-turned-filmmaker Ice Cube. The program debuts on ESPN Tuesday at 8pm ET.

A winning team of filmmakers are out of the starting gates with a pilot order from the premium cable network.

Behind “Luck”, a drama set in the world of horse racing, are David Milch who was the showrunner for “Deadwood” and Michael Mann (“Public Enemies”).

The Olympic Games have traditionally been a ratings bonanza for American televison networks and they still are. Correspondingly the astronomical rights fees have reflected broadcasters’ level of interest in securing them. But the times, they are a changin’. As the future rights fees are not likely to reach such heights.
(see chart below)

2010 Vancouver Olympic Television Schedule

As we begin 2010 it is time to consider which is the BEST sports movie from the first decade of the 21st Century.

There are some very good choices. Documentaries, by the way, like “Dogtown and Z-Boys” deserve their own column.

Here is the Top Ten:

Celebrating their 30th anniversary by engaging well-known filmmakers to create documentaries centered on the last 30 years in sports, ESPN’s ambitious project takes to the air beginning in the fall.
Airing on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET beginning October 6 and running through November 10,the series features notable directors and producers from Hollywood exploring topics ranging from the end of the USFL to the title fight between Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes to the story of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band which continued to march even though the team had moved to Indianapolis. Peter Berg’s film exploring the effects of the shocking trade of Wayne Gretzky from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988 will kick off the series Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Oscar nominated writer/director James Toback (“Bugsy”) presents a no-holds-barred portrait of the controversial former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson.