Dash Mihok

The tennis pro plunked down on a folding chair in the shade beside the Jewish Community Center’s tennis courts. He looked sweaty and exhausted from a morning in the hot sun.

He also looked familiar. That’s because the rugged-looking guy in tennis whites was Josh Hopkins, from “Cougar Town,” “The Perfect Storm” and dozens of other television shows and movies.

There were also lots of people rushing around with walkie-talkies, and many more lights and scrims than usual out on the tennis courts. It was day three of filming on an independent movie called “Tan Lines,” a comedy written by Louisville author (and tennis instructor) James Markert.

What had brought Hopkins to a film shot at the Louisville JCC?
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Sports movies are usually a struggle to bring to the screen. And an independent one, even more so.

“Tan Lines,” an independent production, concerns Owen “Game Set” Match, a cocky top tennis pro who gets fired by a prestigious sports club only to find himself trying to piece back his career at the Derby City Rec Center club. Producer Gill Holland described it as a cross between “Caddyshack” and “Tin Cup,” but with tennis subbing for golf.

“I’ve been telling other producers that this is the hardest shoot I’ve ever been on,” said Holland over the phone from the Louisville, Kentucky where the film is days away from wrapping principal photography. “For example, we had 125 extras on set for 12 hours the other day and the weather spiked to 97 degrees. We had a medic. One person got sick.”

Despite the production spending two long weeks shooting on a sweltering tennis court, Holland said the shoot’s been going great so far.
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