Rob Zombie Making a Hockey Movie Because… Why Not?

Looks like Kevin Smith isn't the only controversial director currently working on a hockey movie. Filmmaker and musician Rob Zombie has just acquired the rights to the story of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team. Say what?

The director is best known for his genre films 'House of 1000 Corpses' and the superior sequel 'The Devil's Rejects.' He also directed a remake of  'Halloween' and the atrocious follow-up, 'H2.' His skills behind the camera are hit or miss, but always carry a gritty, grimy, and indulgently trashy aesthetic.

Deadline reports that Zombie is making a film based on the Flyers, who were already the subject of the HBO documentary 'Broad Street Bullies.' A brief primer on the team:

The physical play of the Flyers was legendary, to the point that when they played the Soviet Union’s supposedly invincible and tough Red Army team, the Flyers roughed them up so badly that the Russian team left the ice in the first period, and only returned when told they would not get paid if they didn’t. The Flyers won the game 4-1, with head coach Fred Shero proclaiming, 'Yes we are world champions. If they had won, they would have been world champions. We beat the hell out of a machine.' Despite being known as Freddy’s Philistines because of the work of enforcers like Dave Schultz, the Flyers had skilled players like Bobby Clarke and won back to back Stanley Cup championships in two-fisted fashion.

Zombie has reportedly compared this project to equal parts 'Rocky' and 'Boogie Nights' -- an interesting conceit, and it's likely he could very well pull it off. The backdrop of the film is the 70s, an era Zombie is fond of and one in which he usually flourishes (see: 'Devil's Rejects'), and with the story of brutal, outrageous sportsmen kicking up some blood in the rink, this marriage is relatively promising.

The director is currently in post-production on 'Lords of Salem,' a horror genre pic, and his first film since 2009's one-two-punch of awful -- 'H2' and his animated flick 'The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.' Since then Zombie has been directing commercials, an episode of 'CSI: Miami,' and a Tom Papa TV special. So a hockey movie doesn't seem so bizarre anymore, right?