Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant is making his big-screen acting debut in a short film directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Bryant plays the title character in a six-minute film called The Black Mamba that will screen at Los Angeles area movie theaters for six days starting Saturday (Feb. 19).
In a partnership between shoemaker Nike and cinema advertising firm Screenvision, the film will be shown ahead of PG13- and R-rated movies at the Chinese, Bruin, Westlake Village and a dozen other theaters.
An insider describes the film as “basically a pitch session between Kobe and director Robert Rodriguez for a collaborative project that’s seemingly an action movie.”
Hip-hop artist Kanye West plays “The Boss” in the movie.
Bryant has appeared as himself in dozens of TV shows and commercials and he played a character named Terry Hightower in the show Moesha in 1996, the year he was drafted as an NBA rookie. IMDb lists Moesha and The Black Mamba as his lone TV and movie “acting” credits.
