islandclaws

From Collider:

Rob Zombie, rocker and director of the Halloween reboot and sequel, is taking to the ice for his next project. The multi-hyphenate plans to revisit the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers hockey team for a sports feature titled, Broad Street Bullies. The Flyers of this era were a recently installed expansion team that developed a reputation for fielding enforcers and goons while also possessing a skilled group of players that paved the way to two Stanley Cups. With Zombie on board, there’s sure to be an up-play on violence in a picture that harkens back to 1977′s cult classic, Slap Shot. Hit the jump for more on Broad Street Bullies.

After a particularly raucous game, Jack Chevalier and Pete Cafone of the Philadelphia Bulletin coined the name “Broad Street Bullies,” due to the Flyers’ fighting nature and the Broad Street location of their arena, the Spectrum. Deadline reports that Zombie will tackle the Broad Street Bullies project as a mash up of Rocky and Boogie Nights on ice. He went on to say:

“Each character involved is more outrageous than the next. The backdrop of the turbulent year of 1974 is perfect for this ‘stranger than fiction’ sports tale.”

If Zombie’s setting it in '74, that should put the team either going into their first Stanley Cup victory or sandwiched in between their consecutive wins. It’ll unfortunately be a couple of years too early for the classic game against the Soviet Union in which the Broad Street Bullies proved too rough and aggressive for the Red Machine, forcing the visiting team to leave the ice before the first period had even ended.

Zombie purchased the rights to the team’s story and has the full cooperation and support of the Flyers’ bench. Look for the writer/director’s next film, The Lords of Salem to debut sometime later this year.

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Since Zombie won't be able to rely on gore to get his message across, I'm very curious to see how this turns out. I have no doubt he'll nail the time period, though.

EdTheRipper

I'm not a big hockey fan but I've enjoyed (most of) Zombie's other flicks. I'd most likely see this.

Crocker Jarmen

While I wasn't a big fan of Zombie's other films, I thought they were well paced and had interesting looks, so i would be happy to see his hand at a "real" movie

Charlie Goose

I guess I'll be the lone vote of dissent. I'm going out on a limb to say that this is going to be a disaster. He can direct a simple gore freakshow, nothing else.

The Bus

Cautiously curious.

DJariya

I'm not a hockey fan, but I watched the Broadstreet Bullies documentary on HBO last Fall and the story of the 1970's Flyers was really interesting.

http://www.hbo.com/#/sports/broad-street-bullies

If you have HBO, it's re-airing this Sunday on HBO Zone. You should check it out. HBO Sports did a great job with it.

That being said, what a weird pairing having Zombie direct this story.

riotinmyskull

interesting....

Crocker Jarmen

I disagree, there were many comedic scenes in Devil's Rejects that were wonderfully done, I thought the stuff about the little boy in the hospital in Halloween was emotially devestating. Zombie has talant as a director if he can just get over his juvanile insistance that there is something entertaining about rape and degredation for its own sake.

I can't call any of his movies "good", but they all have a weird energy flowing through, an intangible something different you don't get in other movies.

majorjoe23

I hope Sherri Moon Zombie plays Ed Van Impe!

banthafett

Sounds interesting. And with it being in 74 it will have a kickass soundtrack.