Tony Hand playing for Team GB
New Whitley Warriors Head Coach Tony Hand is set to appear in a documentary later this year.
Edinburgh/US-based film producer Grant Slater, along with his company Slater Brothers Entertainment, announced the news this week. The plan is a return to Grant’s ice hockey roots with a documentary feature on the UK hockey legend, with production set to begin in December.
“I am always excited when we are starting a new project, but this one is special”, Slater said. “I grew-up in a hockey family and before I got involved in the film business, I worked quite a few years in the hockey business. I am a big fan of UK Hockey so I was familiar with Tony’s career and the more I looked into his journey the more I wanted to tell his story. It is a story that certainly transcends not just the hockey community. It is an inspirational story that will have you re-evaluating how you measure success in sport and life.”
The documentary film space is a departure from a string of dramatic features produced by Slater Brothers Entertainment. Michael Sunderlin will be co-directing and London-based Steve James was named producer.
Slater Brothers Entertainment also produced the dramatic feature Odd Man Rush, based on Bill Keenen’s memoir. Odd Man Rush is about Keenen growing up in the 1990s as a New York Rangers fan, playing college hockey for Harvard and ending up in minor pro leagues in Sweden and Germany when injuries disrupted his dreams of an NHL career.
Tony Hand was the first and only hockey player to be bestowed with an MBE medal (Member of the Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2017, Tony Hand was also awarded the Torriani Award and inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.