At this morning's almost-surprise press conference held, where else, at the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto, TIFF Director and CEO Piers Handling, along with co-director Cameron Bailey, revealed that Michael McGowan's Score: A Hockey Musical has been bestowed the major honouring of opening the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
“I can't think of a better way to kick off our 35th anniversary Festival than with Score: A Hockey Musical,” said Bailey to members of the press. “It continues our tradition of launching the very best in Canadian filmmaking -- although in 35 years this is our first musical romance about hockey. Plan for a fun night on September 9.”
And it's likely the first musical romance about hockey that most Canadians will have ever heard of though its universal fish-out-of-water tale makes it about more than what happens on the ice.
The film follows Farley (newcomer Noah Reid who was on-hand at the press conference) as a small-toy boy who's been home-schooled by his hippie-dippy parents (played by Olivia Newton-John and singer/songwriter Mark Jordan) and treated to organic living and trips to the art gallery while his friends are hitting up malls, and the ice, and socializing in more traditional ways. His fondness for hockey turns into more than a hobby when a local scout (the always-dependable Stephen McHattie) recruits the teenager and he becomes a national sensation, though the expectation to drop his gloves and fight on the ice makes him reconsider his choices.Actress Allie McDonald, also at the presser, plays his best friend in the film, which also features a litany of cameos from noteworthy Canucks like Nelly Furtado, George Stromboulopoulos, Hawksley Workman, The Rheostatics' Dave Bidini, famous hockey dad Walter Gretzky and former on-ice star Theo Fleury. "Brothers & Sisters" co-star John Pyper-Ferguson and "Little Mosque on the Prairie" actor Brandon Firla also appear in the film.
McGowan, whose previous films Saint Ralph (2004) and the Joshua Jackson starrer One Week (2008) both debuted at TIFF, wrote 19 original songs for the film, which also features music from Barenaked Ladies, Newton-John and Hawksley Workman.
The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 9-19.
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