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Mark Strong ("Low Winter Sun") is set to join Mark Elijah Rosenberg's "Ad Inexplorata" with filming to begin in 2014.

Strong plays a Nasa pilot alone on a one-way mission to Mars. Josh Penn, Matthew Parker, Thomas B. Fore and Jason Michael Berman will produce. [Source: Deadline]

Hackers

Callan McAuliffe ("I Am Number Four," "Kite") and Lorraine Nicholson have joined the cast of Akan Satayev's $5 million Canadian indie film "Hackers".

McAuliffe an ambitious teen techhead member of a secret Internet criminal network called DarkWeb. Nicholson plays one of the fellow members of the network. Filming begins at the end of this month in Toronto, NYC, Dubai and Thailand. [Source: Deadline]

Baseballissimo

"Good Neighbors" director Jacob Tierney and actor Jay Baruchel are re-teaming for the indie dramedy "Baseballissimo" at A71 Productions and Gefilter Productions. Baruchel and Jesse Chabot penned the script based on the novel by Dave Bidini.

Baruchel plays a young...

Kevin Smith isn't the only one with a hockey movie brewing. You might recall that Seann William Scott was provisionally cast in Smith's next and possibly last film, Hit Somebody, but then ended up starring in this other hockey comedy [1], Goon, instead. Goon stars Scott as a bouncer who joins a minor league hockey team as he discovers his talents for fighting and skating. Liev Schreiber is his mustachioed nemesis [2], Alison Pill is a romantic interest and Jay Baruchel plays a supporting role. Baruchel wrote with Evan Goldberg (Superbad co-writer) inspired by the book Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey into Minor League Hockey, written by Doug Smith and Adam Frattasio. The film played at Toronto to great audience response (Toronto certainly being the best fest at which to debut a hockey film) and subsequently sold to Magnet for around $2m. A few more details, and a...

Having just scored a goal at Toronto with the blood-soaked hockey pic "Goon," Judd Apatow-stalwart Jay Baruchel ("Knocked Up," "Tropic Thunder") now seems bent on dominating all sports comedies.

After writing and co-starring in "Goon," Baruchel is following up with a baseball-centered story with an international twist. According to Variety he'll adapt the 2005 non-fiction book "Baseballissimo," which follows writer/musician Dave Bidini and his family as they explore Nettuno, known as the baseball capital of Italy, where fanaticism for the sport is so high the townspeople give children baseball gloves and bats at their first communion.

Switching from Canada's favorite pastime to America's should be a fairly easy transition for Baruchel, especially since Bidini is a fellow Canuck whose sense of humor seems to gel with the 29-year-old's.

Who will play Bidini is another matter. It will be interesting to see who they go with to portray the family...

Jay Baruchel and writing partner Jesse Chabot are teaming to co-script sports comedy "Baseballissimo" reports Variety.

Based on Dave Bidini's popular 2005 non-fiction book, the story charts the author's family adventures in Nettuno, a city in Italy where American G.I.s introduced baseball in 1944.

Rush frontman Geddy Lee optioned the book last year. Baruchel co-wrote the hockey comedy "Goon" which just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Jay Baruchel found success with his first venture into screenwriting, the hockey comedy Goon.  The movie premiered Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is expected to come out of the fest with a distribution deal.  The actor/writer is not one to rest on his laurels, and is already setting up his next project---another sports comedy---with writing partner Jesse Chabot.  Variety reports Baruchel and Chabot will adapt the 2005 non-fiction book Baseballissimo by Dave Bidini.  The book "charts the author's family adventures in Nettuno, the baseball capital of Italy, where American G.I.s introduced the game in 1944."  Rush frontman and "baseball fanatic" Geddy Lee optioned the book last year, and will team with A71 president David Miller and Bidini to produce. I love a good sports comedy, and given Matt and Steve's reaction to Goon, Baruchel and Chabot are the right men for the job.  Currently, the duo...

Today, it was announced at Canada's Hockey Hall of Fame that the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival's opening film will be none other than the Canadian film Score: A Hockey Musical. Moreover, this film by director Michael McGowan (One Week) will hit Canada's theatres on October 2.

In this film, Olivia Newton-John (Grease) and songwriter Marc Jordan both play the parents of a teenager (Noah Reid). This kid's mom home-schools him, feeds him with organic foods, takes him to the art gallery and becomes dismayed when he reveals a love for Canada's most popular sport (i.e. hockey) even though he has never played in an organized league. Moreover, with his talent, this kid will get out of obscurity to become a hockey celebrity overnight.

The film also stars singer Nelly Furtado, as a hockey fanatic, Stephen McHattie, Dru Viergever, Hawksley Workman, Dave Bidini, John Pyper-Ferguson, Wesley Morgan, George Stroumboulopoulos, Brandon Firla,...

Toronto -- "Score: A Hockey Musical" is to open the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9.

Fest organizers tapped Canadian director Michael McGowan's music-driven homage to hockey, toplined by Olivia Newton-John and Nelly Furtado as a hockey zealot, to kick off their 35th edition with a glitzy world premiere at Roy Thomson Hall.

The coming-of-age movie portrays a sheltered 17-year-old, played by newcomer Noah Reid, going from zero to hero on the ice in a matter of weeks. Think "Glee" with sticks and skates as hockey players croon while slapping a puck round an ice rink.

"Plan for a fun night on Sept. 9," festival co-director Cameron Bailey said after choosing the Canadian pop culture crowd-pleaser with 19 original songs woven into the movie's dialogue.

The announcement of the festival's 2010 opening-night film was suitably made Wednesday morning at the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto.

The fest is looking to...

Canada is obsessed with hockey. I'm not so sure if we're obsessed with musicals, but we are definitely obsessed with hockey. Which is why it makes perfect sense that hockey-musical Score is opening the 2010 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. What will the rest of the world make of this Glee meets Slapshot fusion? Lemme know after you've taken a first look below. I'd have liked a bit more Slapshot, myself.

Seventeen-year old Farley (Noah Reid) has the stick-handling skills to be the next Sidney Crosby. Not that Farley has any idea who Crosby is. He's led a sheltered life, homeschooled by parents (Olivia Newton-John and Marc Jordan) whose idea of homework is trips to an art gallery or ashram. His best friend is Eve (Allie MacDonald), the girl who's lived next door since they were both three. Much to the dismay of his parents, Farley loves to play...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: It’s appropriate that the Toronto International Film Festival — Canada’s biggest event of its kind and ground zero for Hollywood’s annual Oscar race — should begin with a hockey film. Better than that, a hockey musical.

“Score: A Hockey Musical,” directed by Canadian filmmaker Michael McGowan, will open the 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9. The homage to hockey, with 19 original songs, stars Olivia Newton-John and Nelly Furtado as a hockey zealot.

“I can’t think of a better way to kick off our 35th anniversary Festival than with Score: A Hockey Musical,” said Cameron Bailey, Tiff’s co-director. “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.”

The movie’s ensemble cast includes Allie MacDonald, Stephen McHattie and Dave Bidini...

Toronto-based singer/songwriter Gary 'Geddy' Lee, leader of the Canadian rock band "Rush" has optioned, as a producer, the film/TV rights to musician/author Dave Bidini's non-fiction 2005 novel Baseballissimo: My Summer In The Italian Minor Leagues. "...In the spring of 2002, Dave Bidini set off for Nettuno, Italy, with his wife, Janet, and their two small children, in search of his favourite summer game, baseball. Nettuno was his destination because this town, south of Rome, has been the baseball capital of Italy since 1944, when the game was introduced by the American GIs who liberated the region. Bidini wanted to spend time in a town where everyone is as nuts about the game as he is, and in Nettuno, they love the game so much that they hand out baseball gloves and bats to children taking their first communion. "For six months Bidini followed the fortunes of the 'Serie B Peones',...

Toronto-based singer/songwriter Gary 'Geddy' Lee, leader of the Canadian rock band Rush has optioned, as a producer, the film/TV rights to musician/author Dave Bidini's non-fiction 2005 novel "Baseballissimo: My Summer In The Italian Minor Leagues".

"...In the spring of 2002, Dave Bidini set off for Nettuno, Italy, with his wife, Janet, and their two small children, in search of his favourite summer game, baseball. Nettuno was his destination because this town, south of Rome, has been the baseball capital of Italy since 1944, when the game was introduced by the American GIs who liberated the region. Bidini wanted to spend time in a town where everyone is as nuts about the game as he is, and in Nettuno, they love the game so much that they hand out baseball gloves and bats to children taking their first communion.

"For six months Bidini followed the fortunes of the 'Serie B Peones',...

For those who don't know, the film Score: A Hockey Musical has been on production since February 1rst in Toronto. The shooting of the film will wrap up on March 8, 2010.

In this film, Olivia Newton-John (Grease) and songwriter Marc Jordan both play the parents of a teenager (Noah Reid). This kid's mom home-schools him, feeds him with organic foods, takes him to the art gallery and becomes dismayed when he reveals a love for Canada's national sport. Moreover, with his talent, this kid will get out of obscurity to become a hockey celebrity.

The film also stars singer Nelly Furtado, as a hockey fanatic, Stephen McHattie (Maurice Richard), Dru Viergever (Would Be Kings), Hawksley Workman (The Real Howard Spitz) and Dave Bidini (Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica). Besides, it will be directed by Michael McGowan (One Week).

Finally, the film is slated for a release in Canada on October 22,...

Toronto -- Hockey mom Sarah Palin, move over.

Oliva Newton-John ("Grease," "Glee") is set to endure stale coffee and frozen feet at the local hockey arena to star in "Score: A Hockey Musical," Michael McGowan's music-driven drama about Canada's national sport.

Newton-John and Canadian songwriter Marc Jordan will play the highbrow parents of a teen hockey phenom who goes from zero to hero on the ice in a matter of weeks.

Newton-John and Jordan will also co-write and perform a song for the Canadian indie movie's end credits

Also top-lining "Score: A Hockey Musical" is Noah Reid, Dave Bidini, Hawksley Workman, Stephen McHattie and Allie MacDonald.

The Mulmur Feed Co. picture, written and directed by McGowan and the follow-up to his 2008 boxoffice hit "One Week, will shoot from Feb. 1 to March 8 in Toronto.

McGowan and Avi Federgreen are producing.

Mongrel Media plans a late 2010 Canadian theatrical release.