Director Kevin Smith's new movie, Cop Out, opens this week, but Smith is already talking about his next project, Hit Somebody, a hockey movie that takes its name from a classic Warren Zevon song. But, before you start thinking that Smith + hockey = comedy, think again. When he first announced the movie back in October, Smith said that everyone assumed he would be applying his Clerks sensibilities to hockey in a send-up of the '70s classic Slap Shot, but he countered that presumption by saying, "It's not like my normal sh*t."
Unlike Cop Out, which is the first movie that Smith directed that he didn't also write, Smith will write and direct Hit Somebody. In a recent interview with NHL.com, he said that the script isn't ready yet, but that he "could probably write it in less than a month." Smith said that, beyond his Cop Out duties, the only thing that was holding him back was finding the right "voice" for the main character, Buddy, a hockey player better at physically injuring his opponents than scoring goals. Smith revealed that after working with Seann William Scott on Cop Out, he realized that Scott was perfect for the role and signed him up for the job.
Seann, for me, was the key into the character. I had all the elements in place, and the one thing I was missing was the personality. Generally, I like to write to a voice, but I didn't know who that voice was or what that voice could be. And then after spending all the time with Seann on this movie, he's pitch perfect. He is that guy.
This dude has something in him that you can just see hangs so well on Buddy. He's got some pain that's going to work out well. More importantly he has so much love in his heart. Seann Scott is such an ebullient, happy person who's just happy to be there. And on [Cop Out] you could see it. On our set, the guy is just so delighted to be working, to be making people laugh. But he's always dismissed as [his American Pie character] Stifler.... This is his chance to shine.
Not only is Smith not shooting for the kind of lowbrow humor that has typified his View Askew productions, but he says that Hit Somebody could be the movie that helps both him and Scott take their careers to the next level.
I look at this as Seann's opportunity to go to the [Tom] Hanks level. Hanks for years and years did this [lesser] role and then he became that [blockbuster movie] guy. This is Seann's chance to do that as well, not just be Stifler. And it's my chance to not just be the Clerks guy. It's my chance to do something big, epic in scale. Stories I tell span one day.... This spans 30 years. You're talking a period. You're trying to bring people to a time in your life that hasn't existed in 30 years. The look of it, the feel of it, the sound of it — everything I have is going to be in that movie.
The only other piece of information known about the movie at this time is that Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: Nemesis) will have an unspecified role in the movie.
Posted 02.23.10 by BrentJS