Goon hockey film likely to drop gloves here in fall

Jay Baruchel's hockey movie Goon is opening its production office next week in Winnipeg, a reasonable indication that the movie is a go. Local service producer Brendon Sawatzky of Inferno Pictures says the film, scripted by Baruchel and Superbad co-scribe Evan Goldberg, will be prepping for a month, which means that the hockey comedy is likely to begin shooting in September. Michael Dowse, the director of Fubar and the criminally underrated It's All Gone Pete Tong, is slated to direct.

Sawatzky adds the production will be under the gun to utilize Manitoba's hockey facilities before the hockey season begins in earnest, and that the filmmakers will likely take advantage of some of the player resources of the TV mini-series Keep Your Head Up Kid: The Don Cherry Story, which shot in Winnipeg last year.

Other than Baruchel, no other stars have been attached to the film, but Goldberg told media the movie has been pursuing American Pie star Seann William Scott.

It may be destiny calling Scott to Winnipeg: the actor had been attached to star in the horror thriller The Divide, which shot here a couple of months back, but dropped out.

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Buffalo Gal Pictures producer Phyllis Laing confirms the third season of the caustic comedy series Less Than Kind will resume in the fall, despite the absence of star Maury Chaykin, who died July 27 on his 61st birthday from a sudden staph infection that developed in a heart valve. The third season, destined for a slot on HBO Canada, was originally slated to begin production in mid-September but may now be pushed back a few weeks.

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Meanwhile, Season 1 of the CBC comedy series Men with Brooms is nearing the end of its intense 48-day shooting schedule.

When not shooting at real locations such as the Fort Rouge Curling Club, the show, inspired by the 2002 Paul Gross movie of the same name, is mostly headquartered at a Palliser furniture warehouse in Furniture Park in East Kildonan.

In addition to housing the impressive set for the "Long Bay Curling Club" lounge, the warehouse also provides a nice blue-collar setting for the blue-collar characters in the show. That means it's just a short fork lift drive between the factory's lunchroom and a completely realistic-looking factory lunchroom set, designed by ace local production designer Rejean Labrie.

Paul Mather, the executive producer and show runner on the series, has writer-producer credits on Corner Gas and Dan for Mayor. He says the availability of the space was a lucky break for the production.

"For whatever reason, this facility was sitting empty at this particular point in time. This is a large building and it's perfect for a studio."

In fact, the script was altered in accordance with the makeshift studio.

"The workplace (for some of the characters) is a factory, so we just turned it into a furniture factory... because this is a furniture factory."

Paul Gross appears only occasionally on the series as the character he played in the film. The series, Mather affirms, takes the story in a new direction.

"But Paul was really good about taking his concept and turning it into something else," Mather says.

The series is scheduled to air on CBC later this year.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 6, 2010 D4