Kevin Smith's now-infamous "Red State" post-screening antics, in which he announced he was buying back his film to distribute on his own, was the talk of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. But some of his "Red State" cast members opted to talk about Smith's next (and allegedly, final) project instead, "Hit Somebody."
During the "Red State" shoot, Smith talked with some of his young actors about appearing in the upcoming project, which is based on the Warren Zevon hockey ode of the same name. Nicholas Braun is playing the lead role of hit-happy Buddy McCracken and Kyle Gallner will portray a Gretzky-like hockey wiz. And correct us if we're wrong, but we don't believe Michael Angarano's involvement with the project has been previously reported. Until now.
"[Kevin"] said, 'Learn how to skate and learn how to speak in a Russian accent," Angarano told us.
The Zevon song features the presence of one nasty Russian — "A Russian with a stick heading straight for his head," according to the lyrics — so it's quite possible that Angarano and Braun will be going head-to-head at some point in the movie. Before then, though, they'll all have to brush up on their skating skills.
"I can skate, yeah. I've probably skated about ten times in my life," Braun said, adding proudly that during his most recent venture to a rink during a free skate he didn't fall. "So, I'm good. I looked like a good," he said, (perhaps referencing the line from the song, "There's always room on our team for a goon"). "I can pick it up. I think skating's not too difficult."
Whether or not Braun is adequately ready to hit the ice, it seems Smith has been hoping to get him and his fellow "Red State" co-stars Michael Angarano and Kyle Gallner on there for quite some time. Angarano told MTV, "He came up to all three of us during separate points of the movie and said, 'You should start skating.'"
But at this point, nothing is set in stone. Said Gallner, "It's nothing more than just a conversation with Kevin being like, 'Hey, I'd like you to be in my movie'.
If everything does line up for Smith and the actors, Braun said that filming was anticipated to run from July to November of this year. "I think what he wants to do is shoot all the hockey stuff first, the action sequences first, so we get that out of the way," Braun told us, "Then he can just shoot story the rest of the time."
Do you hope to see the "Red State" actors sign on for "Hit Somebody"?
