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Baldwin looking for Oscar to add to Stanley
Karen Price can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7980.
Ironic, because the producer of "Ray" might actually be able to say he's won both before the month is over.
"I don't think that's ever happened before," Howard Baldwin said of the possibility of both winning an Oscar award and having his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. "We'll have to see."
Baldwin owned the Penguins in 1992 when they won their second of back-to-back Stanley Cups. His production company, Baldwin Entertainment Group, is behind the Ray Charles biopic nominated for a total of six Academy Awards this year, including one for motion picture of the year.
"We got an awfully good script, but you never really know until you start to look at the dailies," Baldwin said. "Then you start thinking we've got something pretty good here. When we saw the first cut by the editor, we knew for sure we had something special. But until you test it, you never know. It breaks rules -- it's long, it's an African-American period piece and people shy away from that."
Baldwin said that the past few months have actually been similar to the Penguins' playoff runs he experienced.
"Just to be talked about in terms of nominations is great, then you get greedy and think wouldn't it be nice to win it," he said. "It's just like the Penguins; at first you say, 'Well I'm just glad we're in the playoffs.' Then you win the first round and the farther it goes, the greedier you get.
"It was a great, great thrill to be part of a group that won the Stanley Cup, and it would be equally as great to be part of group that wins the Oscar. No one person does either one."
Next in the pipeline for Baldwin include the big budget action flick "Sahara," starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz, and "The Game of Their Lives," about the 1950 United States soccer team. Both are scheduled for release in April.
