If you stretch your memory back, you might remember that Cinematical mentioned an indie snow flick last year, which was going to star Michael Madsen. Yes, ear-chopper extraordinaire. The Mikey Hilb film, called Deep Winter, is a buddy sports film about a skier and snowboarder who want to ski a dangerous peak in Alaska, and Madsen plays a bad-ass helicopter guide. I always thought that people who ski those ultra-dangerous slopes were crazy, so I'm not too shocked that they have added a little Madsen madness to the list.

Now the film has been shot and has a nifty trailer which you can check out. It seems to have all the bits that make a classic winter sports film -- the naysayers, life-long dedication, snow, avalanches, the pushing coach, gorgeous mountain shots and a little sexy lip action to boot. Personally, I'm digging it for the darkness to the non-snow scenes. The indie feel to those shots really seems to strengthen the tone -- instead of a bunch of snow bunnies, bright colors and typical mainstream hi-jinx. The cast is also pretty solid, beyond the creepy Mr. Madsen. There's Kellan Lutz, who is starring in the upcoming Prom Night remake, and Eric Lively, who played the creepy voyeuristic perv Mark on The L Word. Topping that off, there's also Luke Goss and Robert Carradine. I wonder if we'll get some screen time with Madsen and Carradine together -- a Sin City meets Lizzie McGuire faceoff!

I don't know about you, but when I hear "skiing and snowboard actioner," I think "Michael Madsen." Clearly I'm not the only one, because he's been signed to star opposite Eric Lively in Deep Winter, a film about "childhood best friends who want to be the first to ski a peak in Alaska." Alrighty then.

Does anyone else find this news a bit ... disconcerting? First of all, for some reason the though of big, lumpy Michael Madsen on a snowboard or skis sort of freaks me out. Second, when I read about this casting, I figured he'd be playing the Big Bad in some sort of stupid, snow-borne thriller. But no -- unless key information is being withheld, it actually sounds like a nice buddy movie, about Madsen and his pal. Aw. It would be awesome of this worked out well -- sort of a throwback to those nice, non-violent days when he was the dad in Free Willy.