Jamie Foxx leaks the trailer to his “unreleasable” film All-Star Weekend

Back in 2022, it was reported that Jamie Foxx’s directorial debut, All-Star Weekend, was shelved and the reason has pointed to the controversial casting of Robert Downey Jr. in a role that has only been described as “Mexican.” Foxx and Downey Jr. have collaborated in the past and Foxx has been supportive of Downey Jr. when criticisms surface of his satirical role in Tropic Thunder when he appears in black face. Foxx spoke of the shelving, “It’s been tough…with the lay of the land of comedy…We’re trying to break open those sensitive corners where people go back to laughing again.”

While Foxx has moved on to other projects, this past week, he has taken to his YouTube channel to “leak” a trailer for All-Star Weekend. His strategy brings to mind when Ryan Reynolds spent years trying to get a Deadpool movie off the ground and it didn’t see momentum until test footage of the highway fight scene had leaked and the overwhelming response got it greenlit in very short time.

Foxx posted the trailer with the hashtag “#leak” and wrote in the description, “The movie we couldn’t realease a while back…but I got a sneaky feeling we might have to drop this bitch.. the vibe is right…. UNOFFICIAL TRAILER… #leak What do you get when you combine 8 championships rings with 4 gold medals 3 Oscars and some of my homies ALL STAR WEEKEND! … stay tuned 2025. And congratulations to the whole USA Olympic basketball team! Let’s laugh”

It turns out Downey Jr.’s role in All-Star Weekend would have been more of a cameo, as he reportedly was only on set for four hours. The movie would have reunited Foxx and Downey Jr. after 2009’s The Soloist and 2010’s Due Date.

All-Star Weekend stars Foxx and Jeremy Piven as two basketball-obsessed truck drivers who score tickets to the NBA All-Star Game. (Foxx also stated he has another role as a “white, racist cop.”) It was originally intended to be released in 2018 around the time of the NBA All-Star Game and then again in 2019, before being shelved altogether.