WATCH: Jake Johnson must conquer Pickleball in trailer for The Dink

June 23rd, 2026 by Marc Comments

Washed-up former tennis prodigy Dusty Boyd (Jake Johnson) has been reduced to coaching unruly children at his father Chuck’s (Ed Harris) suburban country club.

Desperate for his father’s approval, Dusty blindly supports Chuck’s vendetta against the new craze taking over the club: pickleball. But when Dusty reaggravates an old injury, taking away his ability to play tennis, he resorts to the unthinkable in the name of rehab.

He not only tries pickleball, but, thanks in part to his enchanting new partner, Candace (Mary Steenburgen), he finds himself actually enjoying it.


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Torn between two worlds, Dusty is forced to finally face the ghosts of his past athletic failures, including his childhood nemesis, Andy Roddick (Andy Roddick). Ultimately, Dusty is drawn into a desperate battle for the future of the club, his father’s affection and his very identity.

“The Dink” is a laugh-out-loud underdog story from producer Ben Stiller (“Dodgeball”), directed by Josh Greenbaum (“Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar”) from a script written by Sean Clements (“Workaholics”). The all-star cast includes Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell, Aaron Chen, Andy Roddick, and Ben Stiller.

The Dink will premiere globally on Apple TV on July 24.

Watch the trailer:


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Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….