Current:Home > NewsAll-access NHL show is coming from the makers of ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’-LoTradeCoin
All-access NHL show is coming from the makers of ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’
View Date:2024-12-23 15:58:42
The NHL is getting the “Drive to Survive” treatment, with a hockey series from the makers of the popular Formula 1 show coming to Prime Video in the fall.
After getting players to buy in to the project with Box to Box Films, the league is hoping for the same kind of popularity boost F1 got by bringing in a whole new set of fans who were previously unfamiliar with the sport.
“We have seen what these shows do for a sport in terms of raising the popularity, and we realize any chance we get to grow our sport, we’re going to do it,” NHL chief content officer and senior executive VP Steve Mayer said. “It’s something that we feel will put us in front of a whole new audience. I think everybody has seen the effects that ‘Drive to Survive’ had on Formula 1 racing, ‘Full Swing’ has done a lot for golf, and obviously the storytelling that’s involved is unique and very different.”
It’s another step in the league’s evolutionary process showing more player personalities in a game that has forever been defined by teams and not individuals. The series features two players in the Stanley Cup Final — Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk — along with the likes of Boston’s David Pastrnak, Vegas’s Jack Eichel, Nashville’s Filip Forsberg, Toronto’s William Nylander, Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog and the New York Rangers’ Jacob Trouba.
Mayer said, with help from agents like Pat Brisson and Judd Moldaver and the NHLPA, there was far more acceptance of the project from players than those of previous generations.
“That’s one of the things we’ve seen in this moment of time: Our players are much more willing, much more open and I feel like, ‘Wow, we got the buy in,’” Mayer said. “(Having) watched ‘Drive to Survive’ (and) ‘Full Swing,’ our players actually said, ‘Let’s go’ and they’ve been great.”
Box to Box co-founder and executive producer Paul Martin had never been to a hockey game until last year, knowing only Wayne Gretzky “and they fight a lot” about the sport. His interest was piqued attending regular-season and playoff Los Angeles Kings games, then the Golden Knights’ Cup clincher on the Las Vegas strip last June.
This is the company’s first foray into hockey after earlier this year starting the process of a series documenting the 2024 Major League Soccer season, which will air on Apple TV.
“It just felt like a really great time for us with no real affiliations to kind of hockey or at that point any real understanding of hockey to kind of just come in see what kind of stories we could tell,” Martin said. “It felt like certainly the right time for us but also maybe the right time for hockey with this new generation of players and new generation of clubs that exist now in the league.”
Acknowledging Formula 1 several years ago was in a place that it needed a spark of sorts that the docuseries provided, Martin said he’s not sure if this will transform the NHL or if it even needs transforming. But this has also been a bit of a different process making a show in a sport in which team-first has been engrained forever.
That has led producers and camera operators to think a little differently in crowded locker rooms and other situations.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a huge sea change,” Martin said. “Our type of storytelling hinges on individuals being able to drive those kind of narratives, so within the team environment you’re focused on individuals within that team, but you have to be super respectful that it is a team sport.”
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
veryGood! (58)
Related
- See Chris Evans' Wife Alba Baptista Show Her Sweet Support at Red One Premiere
- An American mom and daughter are missing in Israel. Their family says Hamas is holding them hostage
- 10-year-old Illinois boy found dead in garbage can may have 'accidentally' shot himself, police say
- Teen survivor of Kfar Aza massacre says family hid for 16 hours as Hamas rampaged through community
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, 4G
- Coast Guard rescues 2 after yacht sinks off South Carolina
- Breaking Down Influencer Scandals from Lunden Stallings and Olivia Bennett to Colleen Ballinger
- Refrigeration chemicals are a nightmare for the climate. Experts say alternatives must spread fast
- New Yorkers vent their feelings over the election and the Knicks via subway tunnel sticky notes
- Israeli twin babies found hidden and unharmed at kibbutz where Hamas killed their parents
Ranking
- Judge moves to slash $38 million verdict in New Hampshire youth center abuse case
- Sen. Cory Booker says $6 billion in Iranian oil assets is frozen: A dollar of it has not gone out
- Kenya Cabinet approved sending police to lead peace mission in Haiti but parliament must sign off
- Clemency denied for ex-police officer facing execution in 1995 murders of coworker, 2 others
- Father, 5 children hurt in propane tank explosion while getting toys: 'Devastating accident'
- Israeli twin babies found hidden and unharmed at kibbutz where Hamas killed their parents
- Michael Cohen delays testimony in Trump's civil fraud trial
- House Republicans are mired in chaos after ousting McCarthy and rejecting Scalise. What’s next?
Recommendation
-
'We suffered great damage': Fierce California wildfire burns homes, businesses
-
'Star Trek' actor Patrick Stewart says he's braver as a performer than he once was
-
UAW strikes are working, and the Kentucky Ford plant walkout could turn the tide
-
Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders mass evacuation with ground attack looming
-
Gold is suddenly not so glittery after Trump’s White House victory
-
Rudolph Isley, founding member of The Isley Brothers, dead at 84
-
Taking the temperature of the US consumer
-
To rein in climate change, Biden pledges $7 billion to regional 'hydrogen hubs'