The Flyers Stanley Cup-champion teams of the 1970s could soon be getting the rock-and-roll treatment from horror-filmmaker/headbanger rocker Rob Zombie.
Zombie, the writer/director of the new Halloween movies and House of 1,000 Corpses, has purchased the rights to the story of the Flyers' Broad Street Bullies teams of the mid-1970s, according to a report by Deadline.com.
Rob Zombie will write, direct and produce Broad Street Bullies, a film about the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team that evolved from a cellar-dwelling expansion team into a team that racked up victories and penalty minutes in equal measure during the 1970s. ...
Zombie got the rights to the team’s story and has the full support of the Flyers organization. He likened the tone of the tale to Rocky meets Boogie Nights on ice. “Each character involved is more outrageous than the next,” Zombie said. “The backdrop of the turbulent year of 1974 is perfect for this ‘stranger than fiction’ sports tale.”
Comcast-Spectacor, the owning company of the Flyers, confirms that Zombie has purchased the rights to the story of the beloved teams led by captain Bobby Clarke, goalie Bernie Parent, enforcer Dave “The Hammer” Schultz and coach Fred Shero.
“Rob Zombie and his partners have optioned the story rights (to the Broad Street Bullies) and we look forward to seeing them exercise their option and make a terrific movie about an important piece of our history,” Comcast-Spectacor spokesman Ike Richman told NBC10.
Zombie, born Robert Cummings, came to prominence in the early 1990s with his band White Zombie. After a successful solo career he delved in movie making with 2003’s House of 1,000 Corpses.
Considering Zombie’s macabre history it’s worth wondering if the Broad Street Bullies project will wind up being more Miracle or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Sports
In partnership with NBC Sports Philadelphia
Deadline.com reports that this project will be a departure for the rock star horror king that will include plenty of the black and blue of the Orange and Black's past while remaining "More Human Than Human" from what might be expected.
Zombie... is making a departure with this film, sort of, because the Flyers’ brutal style of play is genre-worthy and has the makings for a hockey film on the order of the 1977 sports film classic Slap Shot.
As of now the movie rights are sold but there is no timetable on when the project could possibly get off the ground.
