Tony Hawk has teamed up with Steve-O from Jackass for a brand new skating present.
The pair are helming Sk8 or Die: The Lee Ralph Story, a brand new scripted collection telling the life story of the New Zealand skateboarder who reached the highest of his sport within the Eighties earlier than immediately vanishing from the scene.
The present is presently in lively growth and has been conceived as an anthology collection with every new season exploring the lifetime of a skating legend. Hawk and Steve-O each function govt producers.
Vinnie Bennett will star as Lee Ralph, with Oscar-nominee Keisha Fort-Hughes set to play as Lee’s sister Kim.
The collection will discover Lee’s childhood in New Zealand, rising up the son of a heroin-dealing father and his rise to skating fame within the late Eighties, turning into identified for skating barefoot. On the peak of his fame, as one of many sport’s prime stars, he immediately dropped out.
“Lee Ralph was a very distinctive character, and that’s saying loads within the eclectic world of skateboarding,” Hawk mentioned in a press release. “His skating was highly effective and easy, whereas his look and angle was unapologetically dirty. However he all the time wore a smile and we had been all the time stoked to see him.”
The collection is co-written by Tom Hern and Halaifonua (Nua) Finau, who will even function showrunners, with Hern directing choose episodes alongside Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe.
“I’ve identified Lee for practically 20 years. He’s a pricey good friend and certainly one of a form,” says Hern. “I’ve all the time identified about his skating achievements and his considerably legendary antics for years, nevertheless it wasn’t till researching this venture that Nua and I realized about all the opposite loopy, unbelievable facets to his story. Along with the Forrest Gump-like twists and turns of his life, Lee and his household’s story may be very touching and provoking. We will’t wait to carry it to the display.”
In different information, Steve-O lately defined why he modified his thoughts on getting breast implants, which he first introduced in July was a part of a collection of deliberate pranks.
In an interview with Consequence, Steve-O reveals that the deliberate surgical procedure confronted setbacks: “I acquired inside 10 hours of being in surgical procedure for that,” he says.
“The surgical procedure was imagined to occur at eight within the morning. And 10 pm the night time earlier than, I acquired a name that the anesthesiologist backed out of it, as a result of he came upon that it was me doing it as a stunt.”
“And that form of set off a series response the place the physician didn’t wish to be related to it anymore, and so they had been having bother discovering one other surgical procedure heart to to make it occur.”
Nevertheless, on the time, Steve-O was nonetheless decided to see via the bold and controversial stunt. It was a dialog he had with a transgender grocery employee that induced him to rethink it.
“On the day that the scheduled surgical procedure was imagined to occur, I used to be testing on the grocery store,” he tells Consequence. “And the particular person ringing up my groceries was evidently transgender, and it struck me as an indication from the universe. So I requested the transgender particular person if I may run one thing by them, and I had a dialog with this person who had a profound affect on me.”
“I knew what my motivation was, I knew what my intention was, and it wasn’t to be hurtful to anyone. I used to be simply attempting to get laughs,” he continues. “I had completed a bunch of workshop exhibits to check out materials, and I had plenty of trans individuals come to me after the exhibits to voice assist for [the stunt]. And I feel some individuals would’ve been okay with it, and a few individuals wouldn’t have. It might’ve been a blended bag.”
