Kevin Smith? Hockey? Oscar? What?

Posted Friday, May 15, 2009 at 4:41 PM Central

by John Couture

I suddenly feel like Brodie Bruce in Mallrats when he found out that his idol Stan Lee was signing comics at HIS mall and he was oblivious to it. This news has been out for almost 24 hours and I'm just hearing about it now!

Kevin Smith is teaming up with Mitch Albom to make a hockey movie based on the Warren Zevon song "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)." Albom wrote the lyrics to the song with Zevon.

I guess I was too busy switching between the two game sevens in the NHL playoffs last night. But I almost feel that I need to turn in my Kevin Smith and hockey fan club stickers.

But it gets better. The song is about a goon in the NHL who dreams about scoring his first goal. And Kev has said that he foresees the movie being set in the WHA during its "last gasp of goon hockey."

So, let me get this straight? Kevin Smith is writing his take on Slap Shot? I think I'm getting a wee bit light-headed over here.

But no, instead of being a slap stick comedy (no pun intended, really), Kev foresees this as being a drama with comedic moments for sure, but with the right casting, he thinks it might garner some awards buzz? Don't believe me? Listen to the man himself divulge the news exclusively to MTV in the clip below:

I don't know about you, but this is as close to cinematic nirvana as anything can get. The only thing missing is the casting of Natalie Portman as a puck bunny who motivates the team by flashing them between periods.

What do you think of this news?

By the way, if you're unfamiliar with the song, you can listen to it below. I guess I should state that the song might be considered spoilerish if you really want to go into the movie with an absolute clean slate.