Baldwins and Todd Slater launch HKT backed by Thessalon First Nation
Film producers Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin and Todd Slater have launched HKT Entertainment & Sports Group, a new production organisation backed by Thessalon First Nation.
The company was unveiled on 13 October 2026, according to Deadline. The report says the partnership is Thessalon First Nation's first investment in a film fund and media-based content company. A film fund pools money to develop and finance screen projects.
Thessalon First Nation is an Ojibwe community in the Algoma District of Ontario, Canada. It was one of 21 First Nations included in a 2023 settlement worth CAD$10 billion with Canada and Ontario. The settlement covered annuity payments, meaning yearly payments, promised under the 1850 Robinson Huron Treaty.
HKT plans to develop stories linked to First Nation history and culture alongside a wider slate of film and television projects. Its first major project is described as a Roots-style epic series about the history and origins of the First Nations. It will be developed with their members.
Roots, for context, was the landmark 1977 American television drama that followed an African-American family from slavery onwards. HKT has not announced a broadcaster, start date or episode count for its planned epic.
The group's plans go beyond the screen. They also cover digital projects, podcasts, Broadway and live entertainment, and sports-related programming. That spread takes in both scripted and unscripted work for stage, audio and television.
On stage, HKT is a co-producer, meaning it shares costs and returns, on a Broadway revival of the musical Damn Yankees. The revival, a fresh staging of an older show, is led by producer Haley Swindal. It is set to star Neil Patrick Harris, Austin Scott and Julianne Hough.
That reimagining played a sold-out run at Arena Stage in Washington. It earned 13 nominations at the Helen Hayes Awards, Washington's theatre honours, and won eight, including Best Musical.
Slater brings a long production record to the new group. He has 150 motion picture credits, including The Optimist, Bella and Lunar Colony.
What makes this stand out is the pairing. Indigenous financial backing for a screen company is rare. Its early choices point in two directions at once: large-scale storytelling made with First Nations members, and commercial live theatre.
