TIFF opening night film to feature jazz hands and hockey pucks

TIFF opening night film to feature jazz hands and hockey pucks

Three people you'd never thought you'd see together: Noah Reid, Margaret Atwood and Olivia Newton-John are all in Score: A Hockey Musical

The Toronto International Film Festival’s opening act has been announced: Score: A Hockey Musical. The selection is a welcome change from last year’s decision to open with something not Canadian and not interesting (Creation, the Charles Darwin biopic-snoozefest). Score features a whack of unusual homegrown stars, such as this list of non-actors: Nelly Furtado, Hawksley Workman, George Stroumboulopoulos, Dave Bidini (from the Rheostatics), Evan Solomon and—wait for it— Margaret Atwood, who plays herself. Noah Reid, currently hard at work on the Soulpepper stage in Jitters, plays the 17-year old protagonist catapulted to hockey celebrity by his decidedly non-athletic parents Olivia Newton-John and Marc Jordan.

The Star‘s Martin Knelman also leaked that on September 12—the Sunday after the opening—there will be a premiere of the highly anticipated film adaptation of Mordecai Richler‘s Barney’s Version.

Knelman: TIFF chooses hockey musical for opening night [Toronto Star]

(Images: Newton-John, Alan Light; Atwood, Q TV; Reid, Gary Goddard Agency)