Slap shots at Toronto fest

The baseball and football seasons might be under way in Toronto, but it is all about ice time in the film festival, in which a hat trick of hockey photos world-preem a few days ago. As the 2010 festival opened up with Michael McGowan's upbeat "Score: A Hockey Musical," the 2010 roster explores the harder edges of the overall game. Friday mid-day the puck dropped on "Goon," a raucous comedy concerning the career challenges of the recently scouted mild-mannered enforcer (Seann William Scott), co-composed by Jay Baruchel (who also co-stars) and helmed by Michael Dowse ("FUBAR 2"). Alliance Films is delivering in Canada, and Myriad is selling worldwide. Friday evening saw the more dark side from the enforcer theme faced in Alex Gibney's latest docu "The Final Gladiators," screening again today. Submarine's Josh Braun is selling the film in Toronto. The pic assumes a poignant timeliness considering three recent deaths of NHL tough men, most lately the apparent suicide of popular former Walnut Leaf enforcer Wade Belak inside a Toronto hotel under two days ago. "One thing that struck me causeing this to be film is when we live vicariously with these men -- they fight for all of us,Inch stated Gibney, an Oscar champion for that 2007 docu "Taxi towards the Negative Side, who co-created "Gladiators" with longtime collaborators Ray Weitzman and Jim Podhoretz. "These gamers undergo a type of crisis when they are exchanged, because when an enforcer you are likely to safeguard your teammates, whom you've created a bond with." Gibney ("Enron: The Wisest Men within the roomInch), who performed hockey attending college and questioned former Bruins star Bobby Orr included in ESPN's "Sports Century," was contacted to create the individually funded film on hockey enforcers by several people, including some team proprietors, and created it through their own shingle. "I had been thinking about the type of Faustian bargain a few of these gamers enter, but the notion these men live and eat a code," states Gibney, who recognized the onscreen charisma of former Montreal Canadiens brawler Chris "Knuckles" Nilan in the past of filming, casting his journey because the pic's primary narrative. While sports fans really are a natural aud, Gibney states the couple of non-sports fans who've seen the pic (completed just a week ago) are reacting towards the central character's universal struggle a la "The Wrestler." "Chris is really a fascinating, very blunt-spoken guy who's very honest about their own career and private difficulties, including grappling with destructive addictions," stated Gibney, who shot the film over 2 yrs. "What we should did not anticipate whenever we began filming is the length of time these men spend coping with adjustment to 'normal' existence following the adrenaline a lot of carrying out evening after evening at an advanced before 1000's of fans." Hockey will get a distinctive Toronto mix-cultural spin in Robert Lieberman's "Breakaway," preeming in the festival tonight and opening in Canada via Alliance Films later this month. The pic examines a youthful Canadian Sikh (Vinay Virmani) who assembles a misfit team and finds an aggressive coach (Take advantage of Lowe) to combat the neighborhood Hammerheads. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com