Huh…..
In an interesting and star-studded collaboration, NASCAR, Will Smith’s “Westbrook Studios” and The Chainsmokers’ “Kick The Habit Productions” will be teaming up to produce a NASCAR-themed romantic comedy titled “Clean Air” for Amazong Studios, according to a August 23 report from Deadline.
Will Smith, Jon Mone and Dan Marcus will serve as the project’s three producers, while NASCAR’s Matt Summers and Tim Clark will be involved in the film as executive producers. No official release date, or timeline for the project’s completion was mentioned in the report, but the report does state that Will Smith is not scheduled to star in the film.
The film follows Lyla, an ambitious sports agent who loses her superstar client before the start of NASCAR’s season and decides to take a chance on a rebellious female dirt track racer, seventeen-year-old Piper Kyte. With her career on the line, Lyla’s challenge—getting Piper NASCAR-ready—is only won if she can also reform Piper’s reclusive father, Matthew Kyte, a former NASCAR champion who infamously walked away from the sport and hasn’t been seen in four years.
According to the report, sources tell Deadline that the project came to fruition during the COVID-19 pandemic, after executive producters Drew Taggart and Alex Pall decided to expidite their development slate, which the pairing had hoped would include a romantic comedy. After seeing the script for “Clean Air”, there was clear interest in the project, which featured an added bonus of a strong relationship between The Chainsmokers’ and NASCAR, after the group performed concerts at a number of races over the years.
While “Clean Air” is the first NASCAR-themed romantic comedy to be produced in collaboration with NASCAR, the film is just a small part of a racent uprising of television and movie projects surrounding the sport. In February, Netflix, in collaboration with NASCAR, released the first – and only — season of the Kevin James comedy “The Crew”, which follows a NASCAR Cup Series team’s changing of the guard through new ownership.
In April, Netflix announced that they would be partnering with Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing – owned by NASCAR superstar Denny Hamlin and basketball legend Michael Jordan — to produce a docu-series following the trials and tribulations of the organization’s first season in the NASCAR Cup Series.
You can read the full report from Deadline’s Justin Kroll, here:
