Granity Studios is a

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

original content company formed by former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...

, focused on creating new ways to tell stories around sports. The company is headquartered in

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

History

Granity Studios was launched by

in 2013 as a company that developed different media, ranging from films, to television shows, to novels. In 2017, Granity Studios produced ''

Dear Basketball ''Dear Basketball'' is a 2017 American animated film written and narrated by Kobe Bryant and directed and animated by Glen Keane, with music by John Williams. The film is based on a letter Bryant wrote for ''The Players' Tribune'' on November 29, ...

'', an animated short film based on

's retirement poem in ''

The Players' Tribune ''The Players' Tribune'' is a new media platform that produces daily sports conversation and publishes first-person stories from professional athletes. The platform was founded by former professional Major League Baseball player Derek Jeter in ...

'', and was directed and animated by

Glen Keane Glen Keane (born April 13, 1954) is an American animator, author and illustrator. He was a character animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for feature films including ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin'', ''Pocahonta ...

, with music by

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...

. At the

90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...

, Keane and Bryant won the

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

for their work on ''Dear Basketball.'' Bryant became the first African-American to win the category and the first former professional athlete to be nominated and to win an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

in any category. The film also won the

Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject Annie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress * Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer The ...

and a

Sports Emmy Award The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports ...

. This was also the first Oscar win for Keane, a veteran

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

animator. In addition to future animation projects, Bryant had been in talks with animator veterans

Bruce W. Smith Bruce Wayne Smith (born September 6, 1961) is an African-American animator, character designer, film director and television producer. He is best known as the creator of Disney Channel's ''The Proud Family'' and '' The Proud Family: Louder and ...

and

Sergio Pablos Sergio Pablos is a Spanish animator, director and screenwriter. While at the helm of his company (The SPA Studios), Pablos developed several concepts for animated feature films, most notably the original ideas upon which '' Despicable Me'' (Univ ...

for the last six months before his death about starting his own animation studio. Beginning in 2018, Bryant wrote, produced and hosted the television series ''Detail'', which aired for multiple seasons on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and

ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. It featured his insights into the game of basketball and in-depth analyses of games and individual players. On October 23, 2018, Bryant's book ''The Mamba Mentality: How I Play'', with photographs and afterword by

Andrew D. Bernstein Andrew D. Bernstein is an American sports photographer. Career Bernstein grew up in Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn's Midwood High School. His company, Andrew D. Bernstein Associates Photography, Inc. has served as the official photographer fo ...

, an introduction by

Phil Jackson Philip Douglas Jackson (born September 17, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive. A power forward, Jackson played 12 seasons in the NBA, winning NBA championships with the New York Knicks in 1970 and ...

, and a foreword by

Pau Gasol Pau Gasol Sáez (, ; born July 6, 1980) is a Spanish former professional basketball player. He was a six-time NBA All-Star and a four-time All-NBA team selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team. Gasol won two NBA champion ...

, was published by MCD /

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

. The book looks back on his career with photos and his reflections. At the time of his death in 2020, Bryant was working with Brazilian author

Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho de Souza (, ; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His novel ''The Alchemist'' became an international best-seller and he has published 28 more books ...

on a children's book aimed at inspiring underprivileged children. After Bryant's death, Coelho deleted the draft, saying in an interview that "it didn't make any sense to publish without him." He did not say how many pages had been written or whether the book had a title. Bryant also co-wrote/produced several young adult novels through Granity Studios: ''The Wizenard Series: Training Camp'', ''Legacy and the Queen'', and ''Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof''. A fourth novel, ''The Wizenard Series: Season One'', was released posthumously in March 2020. ''The Wizarenard Series: Season One'' topped the New York Times middle-grade hardcover list.

Vanessa Bryant Vanessa Marie Bryant (previously Laine; born Vanessa Urbieta Cornejo; May 5, 1982) is a businesswoman, philanthropist and model. She was married to basketball player Kobe Bryant. They founded the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation in 2007 to p ...

is the president and chief executive officer of Granity Studios.

Films

Television

Books

Podcasts

References

External links

* {{Kobe Bryant Entertainment companies based in California 2013 establishments in California Companies based in Newport Beach, California Kobe Bryant