So, here’s a minor update from the world of Kevin Smith.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when he announced plans that his forthcoming hockey movie (and presumably final film) “Hit Somebody” was now going be a two part epic? Well, Smith has now named those two parts so brace yourselves: “Hit Somebody: Home” and “Hit Somebody: Away.” Shocking titles for a movie about sports, we know. Not only that, he plans somewhat bizarrely for the first half to be PG-13 and the second half to be R, guaranteeing that any teenager who digs the first movie will be cock-blocked from seeing the second one for some reason.
To refresh your memory, the film is inspired by a Warren Zevon song, focusing on a rising hockey player named Buddy McCracken, and it has a script Smith has been working on for a while. He’s already slotted (somewhat unofficially) much of his “Red State” cast for roles with Michael Parks to play a French Canadian coach, John Goodman as Buddy’s first coach Blue Jay Jennings, Melissa Leo in an unspecified part, and Nicholas Braun in the lead role of Buddy McCracken with Kyle Gallner also slated to make an appearance in the film as a Wayne Gretzky-like character. The story spans three decades from 1950 to 1980 tracking the buddies rise through the ranks into a professional hockey career. Why the second part needs to be R-rated we have no idea, but we’re sure Smith has a four paragraph /fifteen tweet explanation.
Tacked onto the end credits of “Red State” is the promise of “Hit Somedbody” arriving in 2012 but that seems pretty dubious at this point. With no cast officially locked down, or financing in place, this one is unlikely to be in the can for next year, despite the optimism of the View Askewniverse. We’re mostly curious to see if anybody is going to throw money behind a period based hockey movie at all, particularly in today’s climate. But if anything, Smith is a great salesman and if he can promise to keep the budget down, somebody will surely bite. For now, you can see what all the hubbub about “Red State” about when it goes VOD this weekend. [via /Film]