Anyone who follows Kevin Smith’s SModcast (a hybrid baby of Smith and Scott Mosier) will know that he is a man of many fads. In 2009, the burly comic book manboy has fell for hockey in a big way. In fact he loved it so much, he set his sites on making buddy hockey movie, HIT SOMEBODY. The script, penned by author Smith is based on a song of the same name by sardonic musician Warren Zevon. The song HIT SOMEBODY was written by Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom who is rumoured to be working with Smith set.
During a recent Hollywood Babble-On podcast, Smith announced that Nicholas Braun will be starring in the film as lead man Buddy Mckraken. Braun is better known in the States for his role in the TV series of 1o things I hate about you. Other than TV movies, this will be his second feature film (his last movie, RED STATE, also with Kevin Smith, is still in post-production). With Efron-style floppy hair and a slightly creepy smile, its hard to envision Braun as a heavy-weight hockey star, especially if the HIT SOMEBODY lyrics are anything to go by,
“Coach,” he’d say, “I wanna score goals”
The coach said, “Buddy, remember your role
The fast guys get paid, they shoot, they score
Protect them, Buddy, that’s what you’re here for”
During the podcast Smith said of the new casting,
“At one point it was Sean William Scott and Seann William Scott apparently wanted to make a hockey movie real fuckin’ bad… So he went to do another one which meant we were star-less for a while, which was totally OK by me…..The guy who’s going to play my lead, whose name is Buddy McKraken in the movie, is a fella who’s in our flick [Red State] and his name is Nicholas Braun. He’s this really great actor who I love to death and he is the perfect lead for this hockey movie.”
