Howard Baldwin:

WHEN HOCKEY MEETS HOLLYWOOD

As told to: Joe Pack

Sudden Death

It was my wife Karen that created the story. She wrote what you’d call a treatment. Those were the days of the Die Hard movies and she said, “What about Die Hard in an arena?” Gene Quintano wrote the script and meanwhile Jean Claude Van Damme was making a movie in Vancouver called Timecop. He wanted a writing sample and Sudden Death was sent to him and director Peter Hyams and they both said, “This movie’s unbelievable. This is what we want to do next.” It moved ahead at an incredibly rapid pace, which doesn’t usually happen in this business. He was a big star then, he could have a picture made instantly.

Bill Wirtz was a film buff so when he heard about Sudden Death, he said he’d play himself. But then when he heard it would take three weeks out of his life – because making a movie’s pretty boring – in a skybox in Pittsburgh, he said, “Geez, I’ll have to pass.”

I’d heard that Jaromir Jagr was upset that he was a minus-3 in the game but he’s clearly gotten over it.

We did the movie in a way to bring a lot of attention to the sport and the Penguins. But we had a huge problem as that was the year of the ’94 lockout. We had to really scramble, and fortunately Bob Goodenow, head of the players’ union, allowed us to use the names of the players. We played the Cleveland Lumberjacks in a scrimmage for a lot of the footage and they were the Chicago Blackhawks. The fans loved it, I think we had 12 or 13 thousand people there. For some of the choreographed shots, we used cardboard cutouts for some of the fans, the same cutouts that were used in the film The Natural. There’s one shot, when the helicopter is falling to the ice, that if you hit pause, from the top down those people are mighty thin.

Jay Caulfield was in the movie, Pat Brisson, Luc Robitaille – so we had plenty of experts. I’d heard that Jaromir Jagr was upset that he was a minus-3 in the game but he’s clearly gotten over it.

Sudden Death and our other film Mystery, Alaska have become cult films somewhat, up in Canada. These were picked up because they were good stories but also in order to promote the sport. There aren’t a whole range of hockey movies that have crossed over and gone worldwide but that’s the challenge.

There’s a lot of guys out here in California – I call them the hockey mafia – who love the sport and can all connect with each other. You find out who loves hockey, whether you see them at a game or just otherwise hear about them. Cuba Gooding, Tom Cruise likes it, Jim Carrey. There’s a passion in this sport that doesn’t exist in the other ones.

We’d love to tell Bobby Orr’s story. To me, he was the greatest player to ever play the game. Gretzky was amazing and Mario was too but Orr was just incredibly gifted. I remember working in the Philadelphia Flyers’ ticket office and watching him come in to the Spectrum. What he could do was just extraordinary. I don’t think there’s enough awareness out there of what an immense talent he was. That would be a fun one.

Mystery, Alaska

David E. Kelley, the son of our coach in Boston, Jack, started out working for the law firm that represented us. He wrote a 75-page script (for From the Hip) on his own and he sent it to us and it was fantastic. Within a year, we were filming. His career was off and running, an amazing talent. He was a stick boy for us with the Whalers. His brother Mark worked for us with the Russian Penguins and is now the head amateur scout for the Chicago Blackhawks. And two other former Whalers, Quenneville and Dineen are coaching!

Russell liked to party and eventually Ronnie Francis came up to me and said, “Look, we’re never gonna win another game (with Russell with us) on this swing.”

Karen, David, and I were sitting at a steak house on Pico here in LA just having lunch and we said, “Let’s do a hockey story that brings the sport back to its roots. David mentioned this story about a people who had tried to revive their town by bringing in the great Jack Dempsey to fight one of their boxers. They raised $100,000 and had to extend the railroad. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if somehow the New York Rangers came and played in the elements to see how they’d do?’

Russell Crowe wanted to better understand the game and so he joined us with the Penguins on a road trip to meet the players. Russell liked to party and eventually Ronnie Francis came up to me and said, “Look, we’re never gonna win another game (with Russell with us) on this swing.”

I would say there’s no question that Mystery, Alaska had an impact on the NHL’s interest in outdoor games. Whether they’ll admit it or not is a different story. We actually built a rink up there. They had a chinook while we were filming where the warm air front moved in and we had to bring in the brilliant Dan Craig from the NHL to use artificial ice. He was wonderful, he saved our ass.

Slapshot

It was a very accurate depiction of the old Eastern Hockey League. The ownership stuff was contrived but the stuff on the ice … that’s what the league was then. I saw the movie pretty quick when it came out and I got a big kick out of it. I never knew those guys would end up playing for us.