Novak Pulls Out of Amazon Doc

every7

Hall of Fame
The material that has been filmed for this, the raw footage, will become the stuff of legend for tennis video buffs / film nerds / historians.

This Amazon documentary was initially supposed to capture Novak's coronation and his path to becoming the most successful tennis player of all time.

What they ended up filming was something altogether different. Maybe not as inspiring to watch, but possibly more human and/or fascinating.

Essentially all of the filmed data had been captured, so this is not so much Novak pulling out of filming but more not wanting a documentary to be released from this material.

I can understand all parties point of view on this. Amazon would be desparate to release what would most likely be an amazing documentary. While Novak may prefer this portion of his life to not be aired publicly, or he may be protecting his family's privacy. He may want to wait until he is back at the top again and present a more positive story with more tennis coverage and less personal information.

There is journalistic ethics to be considered here as well. Particularly the good that can come from presenting such explosive information versus the harm or privacy breach to the participants, who originally willingly signed on but couldn't have possibly predicted what would become available to show.

If anyone is interested, when this was first announced I made a thread about it (link below)

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...series-airing-2018-2019.596961/#post-11511001
 

cc0509

Talk Tennis Guru
I don't agree that it is A/B, black and white. Yes, it is all about $$$s, and frankly your extreme pessimism, looking on the dark side of everything, is often realistic. I don't like looking at the world with rose glasses on, so I often agree with yout.

But journalists are interested in their careers. If reporting personal information hurts their careers, they will wisely stay away from it. Which means the guys working for rags have no fears. Their careers are based on slime, publishing it, and getting rich on it - like our National Enquirer.

Yet it is not totally black and white. There are degrees of "solid", so if someone has news that is solid, that will stand up to scrutiny, it's going to come out. And that is becoming more and true right now, where it seems no one is holding back anything. See the fall of Charlie Rose, one day still a star, days later fired and without a job.

It's a balance. Do these reports want to keep a good relationship, or do they want a scoop? It is unrealistic to assume there is always a clear answer.

The day to day sports journalists who have relationships with the top sportsmen will not write about the personal lives of the top sportsmen(negatively I mean) UNLESS or UNTIL somebody else does an exposé. Once that happens, everybody and his mother will then start writing about it. The Charlie Rose case is a perfect example. Not a peep was uttered about Charlie Rose until the Weinstein case was unleashed and now these men are falling like dominoes. The day to day sports journalists know who is gay, who is cheating, doping, etc. but they keep a lid on it for obvious reasons ($$$) until something is unleashed elsewhere. Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods are other perfect examples.
 

Gary Duane

G.O.A.T.
The day to day sports journalists who have relationships with the top sportsmen will not write about the personal lives of the top sportsmen(negatively I mean) UNLESS or UNTIL somebody else does an exposé. Once that happens, everybody and his mother will then start writing about it. The Charlie Rose case is a perfect example. Not a peep was uttered about Charlie Rose until the Weinstein case was unleashed and now these men are falling like dominoes. The day to day sports journalists know who is gay, who is cheating, doping, etc. but they keep a lid on it for obvious reasons ($$$) until something is unleashed elsewhere. Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods are other perfect examples.
Well, falling like dominoes is a good description. You must be right about Charlie Rose. You would think the man was leading an exemplary life. A week later he was brought down.

It's about $$$, for sure, but it is also about journalists not being black-balled for "going rogue". I guess it's all part of the same thing. When one person finally opens up the facts in a situation, as in the case of Ronan Farrow, for awhile it is touch and go as to whether the truth will be believed.
 

cc0509

Talk Tennis Guru
Well, falling like dominoes is a good description. You must be right about Charlie Rose. You would think the man was leading an exemplary life. A week later he was brought down.

It's about $$$, for sure, but it is also about journalists not being black-balled for "going rogue". I guess it's all part of the same thing. When one person finally opens up the facts in a situation, as in the case of Ronan Farrow, for awhile it is touch and go as to whether the truth will be believed.

It goes to show you, you never know about anybody at the end of the day. A person's image and the reality behind the scenes are often two different things. That's why I truly don't believe the PR created images about any of the Big Three players and I wouldn't be surprised about anything coming out down the road about any of them. Most rabid fans get so caught up in these fake PR images of these top tennis players and truly believe some of these players are saints and it makes me chuckle. It's like many fans live vicariously through these great tennis players. :confused:
 
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Gary Duane

G.O.A.T.
It goes to show you, you never know about anybody at the end of the day. A person's image and the reality behind the scenes are often two different things. That's why I truly don't believe the PR created images about any of the Big Three players and I wouldn't be surprised about anything coming out down the road about any of them. Most rabid fans get so caught up in these fake PR images of these top tennis players and truly believe some of these players are saints and it makes me chuckle. It's like many fans live vicariously through these great tennis players. :confused:
My view is surprisingly close to yours.

It's the nature of human beings to hide things, and even famous people try to do it, though less successfully because of their fame.

Only my closest friends and family know what I'm really about, and most of the time they are polite enough not to share too much of what they know. :)
 

smash hit

Professional
What he does in his personal life isn't relevant when it comes to tennis.

  • It shouldn't be relevant, but Djokovic brought much of this interest, if indeed there is public interest, upon himself. He was always eager to pontificate about the wonderful love of his life and his wonderful family life since becoming a father. As though he was the first in history to achieve this state. He never missed an opportunity for a staged photo shoot with his wife. Maybe he has learned that it is better to keep some things private.
 

Mainad

Bionic Poster
My view is surprisingly close to yours.

It's the nature of human beings to hide things, and even famous people try to do it, though less successfully because of their fame.

Only my closest friends and family know what I'm really about, and most of the time they are polite enough not to share too much of what they know. :)

Sometimes it's best not to divulge too much information even to close friends and family! ;)
 

Gary Duane

G.O.A.T.
What is Novak Djokovic hiding by pulling out of this documentary?
I'm not being serious here, but the Devil made me do it. :D
skeletons-in-the-closet-e1459274727614.jpg
 

every7

Hall of Fame
Well, falling like dominoes is a good description. You must be right about Charlie Rose. You would think the man was leading an exemplary life. A week later he was brought down.

It's about $$$, for sure, but it is also about journalists not being black-balled for "going rogue". I guess it's all part of the same thing. When one person finally opens up the facts in a situation, as in the case of Ronan Farrow, for awhile it is touch and go as to whether the truth will be believed.

$$$ and access to sources is an incentive for journalists, but Journalistic ethics is also in play here. It's not just self-interest that stops sports journalists specifically from reporting information about people's private lives. In sports journalism discretion plays a particularly important role when the major players in the landscape they are covering are more often than not young people with very dynamic and changeable private lives.

If something is not public knowledge, you must weigh up the relevance /importance of reporting it versus the potential negative effects / breach of privacy to the subjects of the coverage. And this is not just what affects the athlete / subject but but their extended family / children etc. etc.
 

FudgeMyn

Professional
idk why these guys just don't start a monthly vlog channel on youtube and call it a day. it'll be way more successful than some amazon documentary
 

kOaMaster

Hall of Fame
Too bad Novak pulls out of this, it would've (or could've been) a really interesting documentation with all the circumstances.
Boris Becker just did something like that over the last 6 months and even though I don't like him too much it was very insightful and captivating.

To me this is rather cowardish but I don't know the exact reasons so I'm not there to blame anyone. It just seems that Novak didn't really thought it through what he signed up for which isn't exactly a sign of smartness.

I'm 100% sure this would not happen to either Rafa or Fed:
- Rafa is too shy & humble to even think of anything like that, I doubt he'll ever agree to such a thing.
- Federer is way too classy to pull out of anything like that, he'd be excited to show (only) his positive sides, his dedication to tennis and would make it a huge success whether it would be on- or off-court albeit this might be rather boring for the viewers.
 

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
Novak extended time out of the tour has meant a lot of lost profits for many firms.
Lacoste people should be mad at him right now, as they had just started their agreement. Uniqlo was lucky.
 
D

Deleted member 307496

Guest
So a players' personal life never affects their performance?
Motivation can be an issue but I don't see any point in dragging a player through the mud.

That's why what Kyrgios did during his match against Wawrinka is seen in a bad light.
 
D

Deleted member 307496

Guest
Too bad Novak pulls out of this, it would've (or could've been) a really interesting documentation with all the circumstances.
Boris Becker just did something like that over the last 6 months and even though I don't like him too much it was very insightful and captivating.

To me this is rather cowardish but I don't know the exact reasons so I'm not there to blame anyone. It just seems that Novak didn't really thought it through what he signed up for which isn't exactly a sign of smartness.

I'm 100% sure this would not happen to either Rafa or Fed:
- Rafa is too shy & humble to even think of anything like that, I doubt he'll ever agree to such a thing.
- Federer is way too classy to pull out of anything like that, he'd be excited to show (only) his positive sides, his dedication to tennis and would make it a huge success whether it would be on- or off-court albeit this might be rather boring for the viewers.
Federer has made documentaries in the past.

Watch his one on the 2004 Masters Cup which focuses on his dominance at the top of the game.
 

weelie

Professional
It would be wonderful to a see a document depicting the demise this year and then the rise next year! (I am a not a Novak fan, really)
 
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