Run-A-Muck said it is developing Courtside, a modern sports romantic comedy set in the world of professional women’s basketball that will star Gabby Williams alongside Theresa Plaisance, Syd Colson and Jennifer Beals.
Courtside follows an injury-plagued women’s hoops superstar whose championship ambitions are upended when she falls for her teammate. Syd Colson will also serve as an executive producer on the film, which is being written by Brittani Nichols and directed by Carly Usdin.
Run-A-Muck co-founder Ilene Chaiken framed the project as a deliberate expansion of the company’s sports slate. "This is exactly the kind of story we want to be telling at Run-A-Muck," she said, adding that "Women’s sports are driving culture in a way that feels undeniable, and there’s a real appetite for character-driven queer stories that reflect that world authentically."
The creative team leans into that promise: Nichols, who wrote Courtside, said, "It feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this kind of excitement to surround women’s basketball, and I’m excited to blend my love of sports, lesbian tension, and comedy into one project." Usdin directs what will be the pair’s second feature collaboration; their debut feature, Suicide Kale, won Audience Awards at both Outfest and NewFest in 2024.
Syd Colson, whose name appears on screen and in the producers’ credits, said she accepted the opportunity without hesitation. "I don’t think I’ve ever said yes to an opportunity faster than I did for Courtside," she said, adding, "I respect Carly and Brittani’s sense of humor so much and being involved with this in any capacity sounded amazing!" Colson also called the project "elated to see a new generation of women’s sports films" and said, "I can already feel how transformative this movie will be in terms of representation on screen for minorities, queer people, and women’s basketball players and fans alike."
The casting of Williams and her co-stars matters because Run-A-Muck is tying Courtside to REIGN, the company’s creator-led, multi-platform sports division. That tie-in is part of a wider push: REIGN’s growing slate includes a flagship podcast, Is She Game?, hosted by Coach Jackie J, which is set to debut on YouTube and podcast platforms later this summer.
The project lands at a moment the producers describe as fertile. Chaiken said Run-A-Muck is building "space to tell those stories across formats, grounded in the voices and experiences of the athletes themselves." The suggestion is that Courtside won’t be an isolated title but a piece of a broader effort to center women’s sports across film, audio and digital outlets.
Still, the announcement raises a practical question the team itself has signaled will determine whether Courtside delivers on its promise: can a scripted feature built around queer romance and professional women’s basketball translate that insider authenticity into mainstream appeal across formats? The filmmakers point to their festival track record and the involvement of working athletes as the bridge; the company points to REIGN’s multi-platform plan as the distribution mechanism.
For Gabby Williams, attached now as a lead, Courtside is an immediate step into a project designed to aim higher than a single film — a bid to shift how women’s sports and queer relationships are depicted on screen. The single most consequential unanswered question is whether Run-A-Muck and REIGN can convert the current appetite into durable audience momentum that changes who gets these stories and how they are told.
