HOWARD BALDWIN
Strong journey from sports tycoon to major movie player
Entertainment maverick Howard Baldwin ups the ante in film and sports
By Henry Turner Photography by Patrik Giardino

HOWARD BALDWIN LOVES the chase. With a warm smile and penetrating eyes—his energy contained but vital—he has succeeded in two of the toughest business worlds imaginable: sports and entertainment. Yet a theme to Baldwin's life is that he's never lost sight of the heart of the game or the heart of the story, it's a personal trait that in sports once led him to partner with the Russian government in ownership of one of the world's best hockey teams during the volatile aftermath of Communism, and in film has led him to concentrate on projects which, while commercial, are never without attention to the pressing issues of our times.

While CEO of Crusader Entertainment (recently renamed Bristol Bay], Baldwin and his wife Karen—formerly Crusader's executive VP of creative affairs—created an impressive slate of films including, for Universal, the Ray Charles biopic Unchain My Heart starring Jamie Foxx and directed by Taylor Hackford; the Paramount-bound Sahara, based on Clive Cussler's best selling Dirk Pitt adventure novel, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz; and Peter Hyams' A Sound of Thunder, a time-travel ecological thriller for Warner Bros, starring Ben Kingsley, based on a story by science fiction master Ray Bradbury. And these are just three among six upcoming releases.

Now, a month after their departure from Crusader, the Baldwins are busy developing a new slate of blockbusters under their shingle, Baldwin Entertainment Group (B.E.G.), to include Mandrake, an updated version of the Mandrake the Magician pulp stories; Ghost Who Walks, a modern version of the classic Phantom comic strip; and The Legacy of Luna, the true story of environmentalist Julia Butterfly Hill's stirring efforts to save a California Redwood.

Baldwin's reason for leaving Crusader to create his own company is ironic. "I wanted to free up some time so I could get back into sports," he says offhandedly.

Howard Baldwin is not simply a movie producer. Priorto his career in film, he was instrumental in the formation and ownership of numerous sports franchises. In 1971, he started the Hartford Whalers NHL hockey franchise. Later, he helped form Prism New England Sports Channel, He was the founder of the World Hockey Association, and co-brokered the merger of the WHA with the National Hockey League. He was chairman of the board and owner of two-time NHL Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In their spacious offices at the Lantana Complex in Santa Monica, the Baldwins are at ease while discussing their past and upcoming projects. Now a grandfather, Howard Baldwin looks as though he is still in his forties, and Karen (a former actress and TV sports anchorwoman) younger still. You get the idea that Baldwin is 100 percentthe deal-maker, while Karen's poise and attentiveness convey her years of experience in creative development.

Howard Baldwin built his sports career from the ground up, getting his start in the hockey minor leagues in the late '6os and then gravitating to the Philadelphia Fliers, where he managed ticket sales. "I kind of paid my dues," he says, but considers his first year in the "low minor league" to be his favorite time in hockey. "I drove the bus, coached the team, I even flipped the bus on the way to a game. It was great fun, like getting a Ph.D. in sports management. 1 was a single guy then and I ate, slept and drank hockey. Then we did the Whalers in '71, when I was 28 years old."

Perhaps his greatest success in sports came with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team he owned that went on to become two-time Stanley Cup winners. But he takes his successes in stride. "I've been lucky. I've had great partners. In Hartford I only owned a small piece, but all the corporate partners were terrific. It was an exhilarating ride every year trying to put things together—a cool time period. I loved that experience. Pittsburgh was fun, but it got much tougher."

Over the years, however, hockey had become big business. "At first, we signed players at 25 grand a year for three years, which is just meal money today." In 1973, when the Whalers won the championship, the team's entire payroll was $750,000, a striking contrast to the $34 million spent his last year with the Penguins, when they went to the conference finals. "Nowadays you really need to be a rich fool to be in major league sportsi"

One of the most fascinating highlights of Baldwin's experiences in hockey came when he worked with the Russian team in the early 19905.

"Challenges like that are the kind of thing I just love, and it drew an amazing amount of attention. Al Gore even used us in a speech as an example of American business going to Russia and trying to do some good."

But success in Russia attracted some unsavory parties. "The ultimate compliment came after the team started making money. That's when the Russian mafia came in," Karen points out.

Yet something of great value may come from the experience of working with the Russian team—a film about the Russian years.

"The Russians were hilarious," Karen says, relating how they kept saying they needed money for new players. "When we came over to see how things were going, we saw that they'd spent the money for doing things like building a sauna right outside their offices!"

Of course, Howard Baldwin's lifelong career in hockey was inspired by his own love of the game. "He's a really good player, and still plays whenever he gets a chance," Karen says. Naturally, any movie producer who also owns hockey teams and lives in Los Angeles is bound to wind up playing hockey with jerry Bruckheimer, in his celebrated games that have attracted the likes of the legendary Wayne Gretzky. "Howard played with jerry. In fact, the first time jerry lifted the puck he conked Howard in the head with it! jerry was a little shocked and said, 'Did you see that?' and I said, 'Yes, you hit my husband in the head.'"

Howard Baldwin entered the movie business quite by chance during a trip to Los Angeles over twenty years ago. "I had a friend out here who asked me whether I'd finance development if he ever found a script worth producing. I agreed, and he sent me a script called Flight of the Navigator, which to this day is one of my all-time favorites... Disney made it, and we made a little money. And that's what got us started in the business."

Naturally, hockey-themed films are a favorite of Baldwin's, as well as films written by writers with connections to the game, "The first film we really put together was called From the Hip, which is a fun story because it ties into hockey. It was written by a young man named David E. Kelly. David was once one of the stick boys for the Whalers and his dad was the general manager—I'd known David since he was a kid."

Of course, the name David E. Kelly is now famous. After the Baldwins gave him his start, he went on to create such television shows as The Practice, LA. Law, Boston Public, and Ally McBeal, among many others. But he is just one among the many young writers and directors whom the Baldwins have given a first shot in the business; their entrepreneurial spirit gives them the guts to give new talent a chance, a true rarity in Hollywood.

The Baldwins' first company was Indian Neck Productions, and a significant result of the enterprise was their subsequent partnership with Richard Cohen, with whom they formed Baldwin/Cohen. "Richard arid Karen and I were partners for 12 years and then he died tragically," Baldwin says. "We did a bunch of films with Richard: Mystery Alaska fa hockey drama featuring Russell Crowe), Sudden Death—six or seven movies— but it was primarily a business that we meant to have fun at and we did. It was very low key."

But the biggest films were yet to come. "After Richard died there was a year which was tough because we had to keep the company going without him. Then we met Phil Anschutz. Again this was really through hockey, because Phil owned the L.A. Kings. He was very interested in our movie Mystery Alaska. One thing led to another, and we formed Crusader."

Crusader was formed with a specific mission: to create films with a positive message that did not rely on showing excessive drug abuse, violence or sexuality. One might be led to believe that tepid films would result from such a mission. Unlike the average studio release that uses explosions and visual effects as a substitute for drama, the Baldwins created a slate in which character and story take precedence, films that have edge despite never going over a PC-13 rating-This is especially true of Unchain My Heart, the Ray Charles biopic that follows the singer's life from his childhood up to his forties. The film pushed the Crusader mission statement right to the limit.

"I HAD A FRIEND OUT HERE WHO ASKED ME WHETHER I'D FINANCE DEVELOPMENT IF HE EVER FOUND A SCRIPT WORTH PRODUCING"

"Let's be candid; Ray Charles did not lead a PC-13 life," Baldwin admits. That the integrity of the story was maintained he attributes to the close working relationship Crusader had with director Taylor Hackford. "We had to make the mission statement meet the director's vision. There was a lot of concern about what would be taken away from the story by doing it PC-13. But the movie has a great edge to it; we didn't compromise it at all."

Sahara takes a special place among the films, as the Baldwins fully intend to turn it into a movie franchise. "I love the Cussler books," Baldwin says. "I've read every one of them, and I loved them long before I got in the movie business. We intend to do ore every two or three years."

Karen describes the film as a cross between the Hope/Crosby and Lethal Weapon buddy movies. "The chemistry between Matthew McConaughey and (co-star) Steve Zahn is fantastic. Penelope Cruz is wonderful, she and Matthew have nice chemistry too, but it's really about the two guys."

During the last year, some controversy emerged over Ciive Cussler's concerns about the adaptation of his novel. But Karen attributes the author's worries to the debacle that happened with the filming of another of his novels over twenty years ago. "I honestly think that it's like the pre-wedding jitters. His first book, Raise the Titanic, was made into a movie that was not very good, and I think that when he realized that Sahara was really going to happen, it got him a little nervous."

"Clive's a great guy," Baldwin says. "We get along with him great. I think he'll be thrilled by the movie."

Though they have now left Crusader to form their own company, the Baldwins continue to work closely with the Anschutz fiim group on the projects they produced for the company.

B.E.G. intends to produce up to three films a year. The company puts its greatest emphasis on project development, a process at which the Baldwins have become expert over the years. "It's all in the script and the development," Karen says. "That's really what we enjoy. If you can develop a project well enough and attract a big-time director and talent, you really get the studios' attention."

Similarly to the way he built teams in the NHL, Baldwin has constructed the B.E.C. team from time-tested 'players'. His loyalty to past associates is unusual in Hollywood, to say the least. Of Nick Ruta, executive vice president and producer, Karen says, "Nick has been an invaluable member of our team for many years." Of Executive Vice President Todd Slater, Howard Baldwin says, "He's an incredibly talented and bright individual with a keen eye for product and an instinct for creating strategic partnerships."

B.E.G. intends to expand its operations in many ways. For television, several series are in the works, among them Bunker Hill, based on the true story of a Boston probation officer whose passion for helping troubled youth takes him into the streets. And a fiim fund is on its way. "We have the ability to do some production financing ourselves, it's not something we have to do overnight, but we will do it in the next ninety to one hundred days."

On the whole, Howard and Karen Baldwin see no easy way to choose material or produce films. "This is a business of passion," Howard Baldwin says. "You've got to love the films you choose, and boy do you have to stick with them!"