Ben Stiller is returning to the sports world for his next project, a pickleball movie titled The Dink.
Jake Johnson, Mary Steeburgen, and Ed Harris are set to star in the joint venture from Stiller’s Red Hour Films and Rivulet Films, with tennis star Andy Roddick and Stiller in supporting roles. Josh Greenbaum, who is working on the upcoming Spaceballs sequel, is set to direct the project.
The Dink follows “a washed-up tennis pro (Johnson) who, in trying to save a club in crisis and win his father’s respect, is forced to break a solemn vow and do the one thing he swore he’d never do: play pickleball.”
This year, pickleball was named the fastest-growing sport in America for the third consecutive year, and an estimated 36 million people have picked up the game as its popularity has continued to grow. The movie is scheduled to begin shooting in Los Angeles in November
Stiller is in the final stages of post-production for the second season of Severance, which is set to finally return to Apple TV+ in January 2025. Revisit our roundup of his best roles.
Since his breakout role as Nick Miller in New Girl, Jake Johnson has been spending more time in the film world, with recent projects including the Into the Spider-Verse series and his directorial debut, Self Reliance.