Kobe Bryant's First Animated Film Has Been Greenlit

If you thought you'd heard the last about Kobe Bryant's retirement, simply because he retired, you're wrong.

Kobe Studios (which is, not shockingly, Kobe's production company), Sports Illustrated, and Believe Entertainment Group are teaming up to create a multi-platform video for "Dear Basketball," the poem Kobe wrote before he retired. It included lines like "As a six-year-old boy, Deeply in love with you, I never saw the end of the tunnel" and "I did everything for YOU, Because that’s what you do, When someone makes you feel as, Alive as you’ve made me feel."

The animated film will be a short and will be narrated by the Black Mamba himself (since, you know, it's not like he's got much to do at the moment, outside of pulling pranks on people on Ellen and taking trips to Disneyland).

It will be animated by Glenn Keane, whose credits include The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Tangled. It will also have music provided by John Williams, the composer for series like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones. Both hires would seem to suggest that this won't be some cheap production.

As the trio of teams behind the idea appear to be going all out, the flick will be hyped with behind-the-scenes videos, mini-documentaries (think about that for a moment, mini-documentaries for an animated short), and a red carpet event. What we're saying is, even though the picture won't be released until sometime in the fall, it won't sneak up on you. Stay tuned for details about a release date.