On the court Baron Davis directs traffic and calls plays; off the court he produces movies and calls the shots.
The New Orleans Hornets all-star point guard is executive producer of the new movie “Asylum” which is on his movie production company Too Easy Entertainment that he formed in 2002.
Davis is the owner and CEO of the business which is located in New Orleans.
The film is scheduled for release in summer 2004 and stars Ian McKellen (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy) and Natasha Richardson (“The Parent Trap”).
McKellen and Richardson play a married couple who move into an insane asylum for work purposes when Richardson’s character unexpectedly falls in love with one of the inmates.
“Asylum” is Davis’ first production effort with Paramount Pictures and Seven Arts Productions.
Davis’ involvement with the movie was mostly financial, but he will be much more interactive with future projects, according to ESPN magazine.
One aspect he now enjoys is coming up with ideas for new movies and has given large amounts of notes to a new writer that he hired, Davis said.
He is in the process of developing a new movie called “Blacktop” about five Los Angeles streetballers who hustle in pickup games to earn money to enter a million-dollar tournament in New Orleans.
Davis has contacted Justin Timberlake for the lead character in “Blacktop” that he created with the pop star in mind.
“I put a word out to Justin and told him that once the script is ready for ‘Blacktop’, that I want him to be the lead actor because I know he loves basketball and he’s pretty good at it,” he said from the Hornets locker room after helping to win a close home game against the Milwaukee Bucks last week.
Davis has recently bought the rights to a 1979 blaxploitation movie called “Penitentiary” about an inmate who receives parole under the stipulation of being a contracted boxer after winning a boxing match in prison.
He hopes to cast a muscular rapper like 50 Cent or LL Cool J to play the lead character.
Davis has always loved movies and as a child split his time between basketball and watching movies.
He went to a performing arts high school in Santa Monica, CA called Crossroads where he graduated with future Oscar nominee Kate Hudson.
“You could always tell he would be good at whatever he did,” Hudson said to NBA.com.
Not settling for “good”, he focused on his goals in sports and show business.
From Crossroads he went ten minutes down the interstate to the Univerity of California Los Angeles where he took a few film classes and interned at a large entertainment law firm, gaining Hollywood contacts until he left college for the NBA as a third overall pick in the 1999 draft.
After he signed a six-year, $84 million deal with the Hornets in 2002, he pursued his dream and formed Too Easy Entertainment.
Davis now splits his time evenly between his two careers and has become a student and player in the movie business.
He said he sees similarities and differences between producing in the movie business and playing in the NBA.
“Playing basketball is how I make my living,” Davis said. “The movie business is a lot more risky, but they’re the same–you have to work hard and know the right people.”
He has a lot of support on the court from teammates Jamal Mashburn and Robert “Tractor” Traylor who also support his movie production endeavors.
“I think it’s pretty good for him to be doing something he likes to do off the court,” Traylor said. “Plus it’s a new opening for all NBA players for one guy to test the waters and do something different.”