ESPN planning to make '30 for 30' documentary on Stuart Scott

By Mark Bergin, WRAL senior multiplatform producer

ESPN Films announced Monday it has green lit an upcoming "30 for 30" documentary around the life of "SportsCenter" anchor Stuart Scott.

The film is in production and Andre Gaines will direct it, ESPN said.

“Stuart Scott transcended broadcasting, journalism, sports and culture in ways that we’re only beginning to really understand and appreciate now,” Gaines said in a news release. “He made his mark on so many people, especially young Black men, and his legend has only grown since his passing.

"The opportunity I’ve had now to examine his life, visit his home, get to know his daughters Taelor and Sydni, and understand how incredibly vast and rich a life Stuart lived, I can only hope that audiences find the same catharsis I’ve already experienced in making this film.”

ESPN did not say when it would release the documentary.

Gaines produced and directed "The One and Only Dick Gregory" for Showtime. He also was the executive producer for the critcally acclaimed HBO documentary series "The Lady and the Dale."

The upcoming "30 for 30" documentary is expected to tell Scott's story as a broadcaster, and how he shattered preconceived notions of how on-air figures were expected to look, talk, act and think – and in the process, helped bring hip-hop and Black culture into the sports media mainstream.

Scott died on Jan. 4, 2015, at the age of 49 after a years-long battle with cancer.

In July 2014, Scott was honored with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. In accepting the award, he told the ESPYs audience that “when you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live.”

From 1988-1990, Scott worked at WRAL. Although he reported news stories in Raleigh, his long-term goal was a career in sports.

Scott graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.