Gary Ross To Direct ‘Old Time Hockey’ For Skydance Sports

Justin Kroll
·2 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Skydance Sports has closed a deal with Gary Ross to rewrite and direct Old Time Hockey, from an original screenplay written by Kevin Jakubowski. The film will be produced by Skydance Sports and Jeremy Latcham.

The original screenplay is set in the rust belt of Pennsylvania involving a high school hockey rivalry from the mid-’90s that gets re-kindled 25 years later.

More from Deadline

Ross is no stranger to uplifting sports movies as he directed and wrote the hit horse racing pic Seabiscuit, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The four-time Oscar nominee has made a career out of writing and directing hit pics that include Pleasantville, The Hunger Games, and most recently Ocean’s 8 starring Sandra Bullock.

Jakubowski wrote the Black List feature screenplay 8-Bit Christmas which received both a PGA Award and Humanitas Prize nomination. His other credits include the screenplay for Assassination of a High School President, along with Legendary Dudas, Play by Play, School of Rock, and Brickleberry for television.

Latcham most recent productions include Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Bad Times At The El Royale.

Launched in 2021, Skydance Sports has quickly become the preeminent studio for leagues, teams, elite athletes and A-List Hollywood talent seeking to produce premium, sports-related entertainment. Skydance Sports first two projects includes the Emmy nominated docu-series Good Rivals and the critically acclaimed feature film Air, both streaming on Prime Video. Last year, Skydance Sports and the NFL formed a joint venture whereby the former serves as a multi-sports studio to create premium programming across unscripted and scripted genres. The partnership’s first projects include a docu-series chronicling Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the Cowboys franchise, as well as NFL Draft: The Pick Is In for The Roku Channel and Kelce for Prime Video.

They are also in development on a Mr. Irrelevant movie with Jonathan Levine directing.

Ross is repped by CAA, 42West and Alan Wertheimer and Peter Sample of Jackson Austen Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein. Jakubowski is repped by Greg Pedicin and David Rubin at Gersh, Josh Goldenberg at Kaplan/Perrone and Adam Cooper at Jackoway, Austen. Latcham is repped by Warren Dern and Kiley Wong of Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern, LLP.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.