The last hockey comedy to grace U.S. multiplexes was … "The Love Guru." They're still using high-concentrated bleach to get the stench out of certain theaters.
Ah, but the future is bright for puck cinema. There's Kevin Smith's two-part "Hit Somebody," based on a Warren Zevon song and spanning the decades, which is in pre-production. There's also "Goon" from director Michael Dowse and written by Jay Baruchel (skinny dude, "Tropic Thunder") and Evan Goldberg (writer, "Pineapple Express" and "Superbad").
The good news out of the Toronto International Film Festival? "Goon" has found a distributor in Magnet Releasing, genre arm to Magnolia Pictures. From Deadline Hollywood:
GOON is the story of Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott,), a dumb but loveable bar bouncer plucked from obscurity to be the enforcer for a minor league hockey team.
In the tradition of great sports comedies like "Slapshot", GOON delivers bone crunching action and laughs in equal measure. Said Magnolia/Magnet President Eamonn Bowles: "GOON is a pucking blast. It's a complete crowd pleaser that has all the elements of a future comedy classic."
Magnet plans an early 2012 theatrical release as part of Magnolia's Ultra VOD program.
"A pucking blast" ... yuck. Please keep that off the poster.
The "VOD" program is Magnolia's way of created buzz for a film: Releasing it on video-on-demand platforms before its theatrical release. In the U.S., that's typically meant a showing on HDNet.
So in this "Deep Impact" vs. "Armageddon" battle of the hockey movies — or "Tombstone" vs. "Wyatt Earp" if you prefer — "Goon" gets out first. In the plus column for "Hit Somebody": Smith's plan to make it a hockey epic that will include cut-away scenes on Canadian history, which may or may not be narrated by Alan Rickman.
In the plus column for "Goon": Liev Schreiber and that mustache. Consider that a ticket sold.
Here's the trailer for "Goon" via reader Adam: