Kevin Smith to direct Hockey Movie

[luke-o]

From MTV Movie Blog (http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/05/14/exclusive-kevin-smith-making-hockey-movie-with-mitch-albom-based-on-warren-zevon-song-hit-somebody/)

To my mind, one of the coolest trends in movies these days is the wacky collaborations that keep making the news. Michel Gondry, Seth Rogen and “The Green Hornet”? Kenneth Branagh and “Thor”? Add another unlikely, though definitely dynamic, duo to the group: Kevin Smith and Mitch Albom.

The “Clerks” director and the “Tuesdays with Morrie” author will be teaming up for a movie adaptation of the Warren Zevon song, “Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song).”

You heard that right. Nothing in the previous sentence is a typo. This mad scientist alliance is happening, as Smith exclusively revealed to MTV News, and he’s pumped up about it.

Zevon, for those not in the know, was a rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter whose hit 1978 album “Excitable Boy” went platinum. The track “Werewolves of London”? That be Zevon. He died of cancer in 2003. A year before his death, Zevon and Albom, who’s a longtime hockey buff and former sports writer for the Detroit Free Press, decided to write a song together. Albom composed the lyrics, Zevon took care of the music, and together they came up with “Hit Somebody,” an organ-driven story in song that’s reminiscent of work by Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie and Randy Newman.


The song, Smith explained, “is about a goon, a hockey goon. It’s this very wonderful, soaring, moving story that’s also bittersweet and very, very funny, about a hockey player who just wants to play hockey, who loves hockey so much, but just sucks at it. The only thing he can do to be on a team is just be the enforcer, just be the guy who goes out there and beats the s— out of people.”

“The song’s been one of my favorites since I heard it and I’ve always seen this whole movie behind,” Smith continued. “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.”

Smith is gunning to get the project going in 2010 or 2011, singling out the film from all his other projects as “the one I really want to do in a big, bad way.” It will be set in the late 1970s within the World Hockey Association, before those teams were absorbed into the National Hockey League. “It takes place during the last gasp of the goon era of hockey when it was all about fighting,” Smith said.

While there will certainly be humor in the script, he envisions the film as being more dramatic in nature, and possibly entering into awards season chatter down the road.

“I never once thought about winning awards or anything, but that movie I think can do it,” he said. “If I play my cards right and we get the right people in it, it could be an award-type movie.”

Do you think Smith has an Oscar in him? Who should he cast as the lead character?

Here's the song:

Warren Zevon - Hit Somebody - The Hockey Song

 

[tominator89]

I like that on the main page this thread reads as "Kevin Smith to direct Ho..."

 

[Mattdotcom]

I bet it will be horrible and full of juvenile, undeliverable dialogue

 

[luke-o]

I think Albom will take care of most of the writing aspect of things. Smith will focus on directing. Which can only be a good thing as it's something the man needs to focus on.

 

[Twisted Intestine]

YES!! THIS IS ALL WE LISTEN TO IN CANADA!

 

[Gary]

I bet it will be horrible and full of juvenile, undeliverable dialogue

****1/2

 

[Mattdotcom]

I appreciate the snowflakes, but since the mention of Kevin Smith makes me avoid anything now, I can't stand by that comment. I will say, however, that if Mitch Albom is the writer, the main player's father, coach, significant other, best friend, and dog are all on death watch.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

This has a real shot at being the absolute worst thing ever.

 

[Czech]

I think Albom will take care of most of the writing aspect of things. Smith will focus on directing. Which can only be a good thing

Mitch Albom's writing is everything except a good thing.

 

[Nightwing]

MITCH ALBOM?

WHY GOD WHY

 

[Mattdotcom]

Hey I wonder if the great thespian Kevin Smith's Wife will land a role in this

 

[Jingus]

Hey I wonder if the great thespian Kevin Smith's Wife will land a role in this

You mean the one he only gives small supporting roles of minimal importance? Christ, Matt, put some ice on your hate boner for the guy. Does "Kevin Smith directs a hockey movie written by the Tuesdays with Morrie guy" not sound lame enough already that you have to break out all the tired rote complaints about him?

 

[Mattdotcom]

okay randal

Christ this, it was late and the thought just hit me. I think therefore I post.

 

[Twisted Intestine]

What's with all the Smith hate? Sure, I get it, but there's never been a Smith movie which I didn't enjoy and I have no reason to think differently of this one until I see it.

 

[JHawk]

The rule about Kevin Smith movies:

If Jay and Silent Bob aren't in it, it's going to suck.

I've literally only liked the Jay and Silent Bob movies (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back being the exception). Anything else is like "Why?"

 

[Twisted Intestine]

I'm one of the rare ones that really liked Jersey Girl (I'd probably have it in my top 3 Smith movies), and Zack and Miri make a porno was good as well, though that'd be on the bottom end. IMMA MAKE A LIST! (Which is what all movie threads should be for)

1. Chasing Amy
2. Clerks
3. Jersey Girl
4. Dogma
5. Mallrats
6. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
7. Clerks II
8. Zack and Miri Make a Porno

 

[C Dubya 09]

I can't be the only one who liked Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, can I? I thought that movie was really funny and not pretentious like his humor can get to be.

 

[Twisted Intestine]

I liked all the movies on the list. I just had to rank them.

 

[Angle-plex]

Chasing amy was one of my favs when I was a teen, but I tried watching it a few months ago and it was terrible. I don't know what I was thinking with that one. Clerks is the only one that seems to moderatly hold up when you get older, and even that is only half as good as before.

 

[luke-o]

The rule about Kevin Smith movies:

If Jay and Silent Bob aren't in it, it's going to suck.

What's with all the Smith hate? Sure, I get it, but there's never been a Smith movie which I didn't enjoy and I have no reason to think differently of this one until I see it.

Smith is just one of those directors who is ripped on because it's "cool". The man hasn't made a bad film. And in 15 years and 8 movies, that's pretty good going. There are directors who have been making for films for around the same time who have mostly bad films.

 

[Mattdotcom]

I can't be the only one who liked Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, can I? I thought that movie was really funny and not pretentious like his humor can get to be.

It's a movie where you have to have a working knowledge of everything he's ever done to get the jokes that don't involve the super adult exploits of a cartoon dog (fun Kevin Smith fact: Scooby Doo graphically got it on with Daphne and Velma in the first draft. I believe DOG BONERS are a recurring motif in the Smith canon) and the script itself was a retread of a comic book he had written a couple of years before. The guy sold me and many others the same story twice. I'm not ripping on Smith because it's cool. I'm ripping on him because I fell into the trap of thinking he was moderately talented. None of his movies* hold up for me anymore.

Here's another fun Kevin Smith fact. When J&SBSB came out, he got on the Internet and desperately begged his fanbase to make it the number one movie in America (since it would definitely be the last J&SB movie). He promised that anyone who sent in two ticket stubs from two separate showings would receive an autographed movie poster. Much like a comic book editor who has hired Smith to write an arc, these people are still waiting. Ugh I hate it when I write paragraphs like these. Ranting over.

*I would like to heartily endorse the Clerks animated series as absolutely ahead of its time. And before I sold all my View Askew DVDs I really liked all his commentary tracks to the point that I preferred them to the movie. Then one day I turned the commentary off and, well, here we are...

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Smith is just one of those directors who is ripped on because it's "cool".

Every time someone says something like this it's wrong.

 

[Mattdotcom]

A sudden thought hits me: Tracy Morgan is filming a movie with Kevin Smith right now. If this hockey movie is a hit, maybe we can get a Werewolves of London feature that draws from this...
Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

 

[starvenger]

From MTV Movie Blog (http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/05/14/exclusive-kevin-smith-making-hockey-movie-with-mitch-albom-based-on-warren-zevon-song-hit-somebody/)

To my mind, one of the coolest trends in movies these days is the wacky collaborations that keep making the news. Michel Gondry, Seth Rogen and “The Green Hornet”? Kenneth Branagh and “Thor”? Add another unlikely, though definitely dynamic, duo to the group: Kevin Smith and Mitch Albom.

The “Clerks” director and the “Tuesdays with Morrie” author will be teaming up for a movie adaptation of the Warren Zevon song, “Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song).”

You heard that right. Nothing in the previous sentence is a typo. This mad scientist alliance is happening, as Smith exclusively revealed to MTV News, and he’s pumped up about it.

Zevon, for those not in the know, was a rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter whose hit 1978 album “Excitable Boy” went platinum. The track “Werewolves of London”? That be Zevon. He died of cancer in 2003. A year before his death, Zevon and Albom, who’s a longtime hockey buff and former sports writer for the Detroit Free Press, decided to write a song together. Albom composed the lyrics, Zevon took care of the music, and together they came up with “Hit Somebody,” an organ-driven story in song that’s reminiscent of work by Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie and Randy Newman.


The song, Smith explained, “is about a goon, a hockey goon. It’s this very wonderful, soaring, moving story that’s also bittersweet and very, very funny, about a hockey player who just wants to play hockey, who loves hockey so much, but just sucks at it. The only thing he can do to be on a team is just be the enforcer, just be the guy who goes out there and beats the s— out of people.”

“The song’s been one of my favorites since I heard it and I’ve always seen this whole movie behind,” Smith continued. “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.”

Smith is gunning to get the project going in 2010 or 2011, singling out the film from all his other projects as “the one I really want to do in a big, bad way.” It will be set in the late 1970s within the World Hockey Association, before those teams were absorbed into the National Hockey League. “It takes place during the last gasp of the goon era of hockey when it was all about fighting,” Smith said.

While there will certainly be humor in the script, he envisions the film as being more dramatic in nature, and possibly entering into awards season chatter down the road.

“I never once thought about winning awards or anything, but that movie I think can do it,” he said. “If I play my cards right and we get the right people in it, it could be an award-type movie.”

Do you think Smith has an Oscar in him? Who should he cast as the lead character?

Here's the song:

Warren Zevon - Hit Somebody - The Hockey Song

Smith picked the wrong Hockey Song to use. They shoulda used this one:
Stompin Tom Connors - The Hockey Song

 

[Red Baron]

This could be a cult classic for those who like hockey, if done right.