2019-09-04 The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 62 SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

Photographed by Diana King

D

irector Gabe

Polsky’s wife,

Justine, was

purging long-aban-

doned boxes from their

West Hollywood home

when she happened

upon one that looked

especially worthy of

the dumpster. The

box, sent to Polsky in

2014 by a fan of his

hockey doc, Red Army,

contained a trove

of letters, contracts

and photos related to

Russia’s once-domi-

nant Red Army hockey

team. But the cache,

which provided the

genesis of his latest

film, Red Penguins,

illustrated a less-than-

glorious chapter in the

squad’s history. Instead

of Olympic gold medal

podium shots, the

BEHIND THE

HUSTLE TO MAKE

HUSTLERS

RUSSIANS, HOCKEY

AND MICHAEL EISNER

Red Penguins tells the strange tale of how the

former Disney chair tried to create a Soviet version

of The Mighty Ducks BY TATIANA SIEGEL

Russia’s Red Army hockey

team became Pittsburgh’s

Russian Penguins.

Director Lorene Scafaria scrambled to find a new backer for her

female-led crime drama, but the real struggle was in preserving her

vision: ‘I was worried about turning it into a black-and-white story’

BY MIA GALUPPO

and its former chair-

man Michael Eisner

are part of Polsky’s

narrative.

In fact, Red

Penguins, which makes

its world premiere in

Toronto on Sept. 5,

offers a slice of history

that Eisner likely would

rather forget. As Red

Penguins recounts

through archival foot-

age and interviews

conducted in Moscow

and the U.S., Eisner

wanted to parlay the

Russian team into a

Mighty Ducks sequel

plotline. For his part,

Eisner denies “hav-

ing any relations

with the Russian

Penguins ice hockey

team,” according to

a statement in the

film. But documents

and pictures featured

in Red Penguins

would suggest some

involvement.

Eisner isn’t the only

seemingly out-of-place

figure in a sports doc.

Polsky tracked down

a criminal on Interpol’s

Most Wanted List and

a former KGB prosecu-

tor to fill in some of the

story’s blanks.

“After the third or

fourth interview, I knew

this was going to be

a really weird, special

and unique story that

no one has ever heard

about,” says Polsky,

whose parents emi-

grated from the Soviet

Union to the U.S. in

1976. “We see a lot of
      stuff about Russia in
      the media, but we don’t
      really understand their
      psychology. I think that
      they are a lot like us
      and care about very
      similar things.”

archive chronicled the

bizarre period fol-

lowing the fall of the

Soviet Union when

the American owner

of the Pittsburgh

Penguins bought the

team and launched

the Russian Penguins.

Hyper-capitalism

met Soviet austerity,

with strippers and

live bears hitting the

ice while homicidal

Russian mobsters

roamed the stands

(and sometimes killed

players). Adding to the

strangeness, Disney

“Everybody has a certain

amount of hurdles before

the starting line. It’s sort

of a wonder that anyone

can even finish the race,”

says Lorene Scafaria,

photographed Aug. 18 at

Avenue in Los Angeles.

Styling by Annie Jagger

Roland Mouret suit