Hockey Tagged Articles at Cinematical

A hockey movie from Kevin Smith seems like the most natural thing in the world -- so natural, in fact, that this news seems like a nonevent. What is surprising is the source material and writing partner Smith is employing, as he's teaming up with Mitch Albom to film an adaptation of Warren Zevon's song Hit Somebody. If you're a hockey fan, you know the bittersweet song about a Canadian farmboy who desperately wants to play hockey, but is good for nothing but fighting. I've embedded it below so you can check it out and follow along with Smith's ideas.

The film will be set in the 1970s in the final days of old-time hockey, the World Hockey Association, and blood-splattered ice. "The song's been one of my favorites since I heard it and I've always seen this whole movie behind," Smith told MTV News. I got in touch with Mitch because Warren Zevon has passed on and we started talking about it and he was into it and into what I was kind of pitching." While the story will have some comedy, Smith is styling it to be one of his most serious films yet. "I never once thought about winning awards or anything, but that movie I think can do it. If I play my cards right and we get the right people in it, it could be an award-type movie."

He's aiming to start filming in 2010 or 2011, naming it as the "the one I really want to do in a big, bad way." Perhaps this film is that "something else" he was hinting at. I think Smith could really get under the skin of a broken down hockey player, and if there's one person who can rescue the sport from being condemned to Slapshot remakes, it would be him.

It's been said that great moves forward don't have to be in mighty arenas; indeed, you could argue that some revolutionary acts are bold precisely because of their triviality. Breakfast with Scot -- a hometown favorite here in Toronto for the Film Festival -- is a heartwarming, fish-out-of-water family comedy. It details what happens to ex-hockey player Eric (Tom Cavanagh) when his partner Sam (Ben Shenkman) has to take in, temporarily, his brother's dead ex-lover's child, Scot (Noah Bernett). Breakfast with Scot shows us gay relationships, gay struggles, gay family. It is as agreeably, tastefully, charmingly slight and lame and trivial as anything the hetero mainstream could make out of the same plotline. The closest thing to a controversy in it is that, as near as I can tell, Eric and Sam aren't using real maple syrup for the title meals.

Eric used to play as a pro with the Toronto Maple Leafs; now, he's a sportscaster. (As a press piece I was handed leaving the screening noted, it's the first time a major pro sports team has let their logo and name be used in a gay-themed film. All I could hear in my head was a paraphrase of The Kids in the Hall: It's a Canadian fact.) Eric 's been so far in the closet for so long he's on a first-name basis with the shoe trees, though -- much to Sam's annoyance, as Sam would probably like to you know, hold his boyfriend's hand now and then. Much to Eric's annoyance, Sam has to take in Scot until his screw-up brother can get back from Brazil. And Scot is ... a bit of a fancy lad? Gay? Who can say -- Scot's 11 -- but he's boa-clad, fond of make-up and might as well be carrying a French horn in one hand and a three-dollar bill -- excuse me, a welded-together Loonie and Toonie -- in the other.

They are something of a cliche, and generally don't attempt to create much new in terms of cinema, but people like feel-good sports stories. Knowing this, the producing team of Howard and Karen Baldwin alongside David E. Kelley and with the aide of hockey great Gordie Howe will bring to you the story of the World Hockey Association. If you don't know Howe, I suggest you look the man up -- his story is quite entertaining. He spent a number of highly successful years with the NHL, and later came back from an injury-aided retirement to become one of the most valuable players in the short-lived WHA, playing with his two sons.

This exhausts my full knowledge on Gordie Howe, and nearly all of my knowledge on professional hockey. Variety tells me Howard Baldwin owned and operated the Hartford Whalers for a while (a team on which Howe played), and Kelley's father was the GM during his tenure, thus their connection to Howe and the hockey world. Will the movie be full of standard sports-movie shtick and swells of inspiring music? You bet. Will it be family friendly and have a heartfelt, "never give up" message? Oh yeah. Will it, in fact, feature at least 3-5 slow motion scenes of hockey players skating dramatically in moments of very high tension? No question about it. And I, personally, cannot wait.

Every night before I go to bed I make a list of things I have no real interest in. Jon Bon Jovi is usually at the top of the list, while hockey is a close second. But maybe, just maybe, if you put these two elements together and slapped a juvenile title on it, it could work? Perhaps, like peanut butter and bananas, what seems so wrong could in fact be so right? I guess that's what National Lampoon is hoping with Pucked, which hits select theaters tomorrow. Unfortunately this isn't 1981, so I'm not able to get too excited about the words "National Lampoon's" appearing before the title.

The movie is about Frank Hooper, played by Bon Jovi – the man, not the band, although it would have been cool if the whole band played one person, speaking in perfect unison like those twins from Mothra – who ends up receiving several pre-approved credit cards. He uses them to finance an all-woman hockey league (I assume a scantily-clad one) but his scam is exposed and he ends up broke again and on trial.  The movie is directed by Arthur Hiller, who also helmed Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder vehicles like Silver Streak and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. The movie also stars Estella Warren, Nora Dunn, Cary Elwes, and Married with Children's David Faustino.