A Blank Rome team represented Russell Hoyt and the Hoyt Foundation, a non-profit organization formed in 1989 in honor of Russell’s parents, Dick and Judy Hoyt, and his brother, Rick, in a deal with Netflix to turn the Hoyts’ story into a movie titled “Team Hoyt”. The film will be produced by Tom Brady, Kevin Walsh’s The Walsh Company, Gotham Chopra’s Religion of Sports, and Ryan Stowell, and co-produced by Russel Hoyt and the Hoyt Foundation. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash will direct the film, based on a script written by Grant Thompson.
In 1977, Rick, who had cerebral palsy at birth and was unable to move or speak, asked his father, Dick, to push him in his wheelchair on a five-mile race to benefit a classmate who had become paralyzed. That first race led to Dick pushing Rick in the Boston Marathon from start to finish. The father-son duo then went on to complete the Boston Marathon 32 times and more than 1,000 other endurance events, developing a global fanbase along the way.
Today, the Hoyt Foundation aspires to build the individual character, self-confidence and self-esteem of America’s young people with disabilities through inclusion in all facets of daily life, including in family and community activities, especially sports, at home, in schools, and in the workplace.
The Blank Rome team advising the Hoyt Foundation helped the family sell their story to Netflix for the movie, managing all the legal work on the story and production rights.
The Blank Rome team was led by George N. Tobia.
