Thursday, August 11, 2011

Previewing Baruchel's Goon

In a little less than a month, the 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will present some of the best offerings of international and Canadian cinema.

Among those to be screened is Jay Baruchel's hockey film Goon.

Born in Ottawa and raised in Montreal, Baruchel had quite the year last year with three commercially successful films –  She's Out of My League, How to Train Your Dragon and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, along with the critically acclaimed independent film The Trotsky.

Baruchel co-wrote Goon, a comedy, with Superbad writer Evan Goldberg. Based on the real life story of a bouncer who overcomes great odds to rise through the ranks of the semi-professional hockey league, the script was adapted from the book Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey into Minor League Hockey by Adam Frattasio and Doug Smith.

In a statement to FirstShowing.net Baruchel said "We like to think of it as a funnier 'Raging Bull.' It's real mean, and it's truthful, and it's everything hockey is without any of the 'bs' sports movie clichés, and it is dead funny. Lot of swears, that's a hard R. It's a very crass movie, there are something like 20 fights in it, but it's the badass movie that hockey fans have been waiting to see their whole lives. It will be by far the best hockey movie since 'Slapshot.' Hockey fans have needed one for a long time, it's a sport that movies never do well. Ours will be a f**ing movement."

The film is directed by Michael Dowse, and the cast includes, Sean William Scott, Liev Schreiber, Eugene Levy and Alison Pill, in addition to Baruchel . In an interview with The Canadian Press back in January, Baruchel claimed he and the 25 year old Pill, now his girlfriend, were drawn to each other almost as soon as they shot their first scenes of Goon in Winnipeg last October.

If all goes according to plan after the TIFF première in the weeks to come, the film is scheduled to hit theatres on February 3.

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