Another Leading Role for Howe

The Philadelphia Flyers first ticket manager and "Filmmaker Howard Baldwin, best known in hockey for his days in charge of the Whalers and Penguins front offices, has started the process of making a movie about Gordie Howe, focusing on Mr. Hockey's return to the game with sons Mark and Marty with the World Hockey Association's Houston Aeros in the fall of 1973. No. 9 was 45 at the time, and two years into retirement after his legendary run with the Red Wings.

"It will tell that whole year," said Baldwin, whose Los Angeles-based film company, Baldwin Entertainment, was also the driving force behind the movies "Mystery, Alaska" and the wildly successful "Ray." "Here's this guy, the Babe Ruth of hockey, really, who comes out of retirement to play with his two sons -- and they go on to win the league championship, Gordie's the MVP, and finishes third in league scoring [with 100 points]. On top of that, he's from this traditional, buttoned-down league [NHL], and he joins this new, Wild Wild West of a product [WHA].

"I like to say that it will be `The Rookie' meets `Slap Shot.' "

Baldwin figures the flick, still without a working title, will cost upward of $30 million to make, and he hopes that some of it will be filmed in New England, be it in Connecticut, Massachusetts, or Rhode Island. David E. Kelley, with "Boston Legal" among his many TV hits, is another driving force in the project, along with Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch and Mr. Hockey himself.

Howe, now 78 years old, still lives in Michigan, and remains by the side of his ailing wife, Colleen, 74, who in recent years has suffered from Pick's Disease, a severe form of dementia that is related to degeneration of the brain's frontal lobes.

Baldwin, now 64, also is developing a movie with Robert Redford on Jackie Robinson. The film will center on the five years leading up to Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier. Redford will play the part of Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who signed Robinson to play in the otherwise all-white major leagues.

Ideally, said Baldwin, his company will have the "Howe" script ready in six months and shooting should begin in the fall of 2007."