Hockey game in Hollywood leads to movie deal for a Minnesotan
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Two Minnesotans were brought together by their love of hockey in an unlikely place—Hollywood.
Growing up in a small Minnesota town, Jared Heins never thought his name would be on a movie. That changed Thursday night when Heins and a Hollywood director found themselves together at the
Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival for the premiere of their film, “Odds Are.”
“Odds Are” is an unpredictable, crime movie based on the true story of three college kids playing a dare game—one that quickly turned dangerous.
Heins and the Hollywood director, Peter Markle, met over a pick-up hockey game.
“Hockey has always been how I landed all my jobs in LA,” Heins said. “Just meeting people at the rink, everybody always wanted me on their team because I was from Minnesota.”
Heins has always loved two things—hockey and making movies. When his dreams of playing in the NHL didn’t pan out, he packed his bags and headed to Hollywood.
After producing a few reality shows, Heins started to meet heavy hitters in the industry through pick-up hockey games in LA—including Markle.
“He made my favorite movie of all time—Youngblood,” Heins said.
The two hit it off. Markle, who is also from Minnesota, was a minor pro-hockey player. He said the hockey circle is huge in Hollywood and that on the ice is where movie ideas are discussed.
“There’s a huge grapevine of hockey where people are involved in the business—there’s like hundreds and hundreds, so I met Jared and then I found out he is from Minnesota,” Markle said. “That’s a real bond, anybody from Minnesota, you know is going to be a good person.”
Markle wrote the script for “Odds Are” and sent it to Heins.
“It sounds really cool, it sounds really interesting and he was like, ‘yeah, I think we can do this one—we’ll make it work,’” Heins said.
Thursday night, the unusual duo premiered their film in the State of Hockey.
Already, they’re working on their next film together—one they plan to shoot in Minnesota.