Men With Brooms Turns 20

Don’t look now, but the world’s first curling movie—Men With Brooms—is 20 years old this month.

Released during the opening weekend of the 2002 Brier, the Canadian film was a brash attempt to drag English Canadians to films featuring homegrown stories.

Producer Robert Lantos said the movie was “completely focused on getting Canadians to see Canadian movies in Canadian theatres. The thrust is to get out of the art-house ghetto and into the mainstream.”

It worked, more or less. Men With Brooms grossed over a million dollars on its opening weekend—a big deal at the time for domestic English-language films—and banked $4.2 million overall. Distributor Alliance Atlantis spent over a million dollars on promotion, which included an eight-city, private jet press tour for the cast.

Main curling scenes were shot at the six-sheet Brampton Curling Club northwest of Toronto, with an additional day of shooting taking place at the three-sheet Glanford CC in Mount Hope, near Hamilton. Volunteer “spectators” for the two-week shoot at Brampton were sourced from member clubs of the Toronto Curling Association and the rabid (mostly female) fan base of star/director/co-writer Paul Gross.

Gross convinced Canadian film legend Leslie Nielsen to play Gross’ character’s father (Nielsen had appeared in Gross’ hit television show Due South.) The film also starred Molly Parker, Peter Outerbridge, Jed Reese, James Allodi, Greg Bryk, Michelle Nolden and George Buza.

Many curling fans are familiar with a number of cameo appearances dotted throughout the film. Jeff Stoughton was there, skipping a team of background performers which included Craig Savill as his third. During a break in shooting one day, Stoughton was coerced into showing off his trademark “spin-o-rama” tuck delivery, which attracted the attention of Gross. The star promptly rushed over and attempted his own version; Stoughton’s delivery appears in the film, while Gross’ effort made the closing credit blooper reel.

Other real-life competitors who volunteered for the shoot include Wayne Middaugh’s 2001-02 season teammates (Graeme McCarrell, Ian Tetley and Scott Bailey), Saskatchewan’s Gerald Shymko and Switzerland’s Thomas Lips. Icemaking legend Shorty Jenkins had his moment on film, too.

Glenn Howard was also there, skipping a faux team which included his real-life third at the time, Richard Hart.

“I remember standing around a lot, waiting for the action to start,” said Howard. “I also remember thinking it was really cool, this is gonna be so awesome—a curling movie.

“It’s a bit of an iconic movie now. I really liked it, it was funny. How can you go wrong with Leslie Nielsen?”

Another iconic appearance comes from the rock band The Tragically Hip, who appear as themselves—and as a curling team—in the mythical Golden Broom competition.

Retired competitor Brad Savage—whose father Paul played a TV analyst in the film—was selected to “compete” against The Hip, along with his fictional teammates Heath McCormick (who went on to great things as a U.S. skip) and locals Paul Wadland and Steve Small. The younger Savage wrote about his experience for The Curling News in the December 2017 issue, and discovered most of the band members were real—albeit new—curlers.

While singer Gord Downie lived in Toronto, I learned that day that the other four bandmates played as a team at the Cataraqui club in Kingston. In between takes they joked about some of the older club members not really knowing who they were, and being annoyed with them as they learned about curling etiquette as they went.

John Base, who went on to compete in the 2004 Brier, had a front end of big guys in the 1990s. As the film’s technical director, I managed to convince them to take two weeks away from work, purchase ACTRA memberships and join the production. Amazingly, Ross Scarrow and Dean Dart accepted the challenge and with myself on board as faux third, we supported actor Greg Bryk, who portrayed the evil “Juggernaut” skip opposing the good-guy heroes.

I made other calls for volunteers—with Gross’ blessing—which didn’t pan out. Calls to other members of Canrock royalty were enthusiastically received but Kim Mitchell and Barenaked Ladies had conflicts, and the representatives for Rush were wary of interrupting recording of their comeback album, Vapour Trails.

Gross also loved the idea of legendary Toronto competitor Ed “The Wrench” Werenich portraying a hogline official who wears a Curling Canada jacket—oh, the irony—who gives the arena the finger after pulling too many stones.

Eddie agreed and drove to the set early on the morning of his scenes, but was turned away by security who hadn’t been informed of who we was and his role. That disaster will haunt me forever.

In terms of training the actors, the process took about six weeks, timed during pre-production. I trained Gross, Outerbridge and Allodi from the hero team, plus Nielsen (briefly, and that’s quite a story) plus Bryk, while Al Moore—husband of former TSN commentator Linda Moore and a fine international curling coach—trained Reese, who was based in Vancouver.

Gross proved to have the most raw talent. He drew the button on one of his earliest throws and looked amazing, totally believable, week after week up to the start of production. He was a bonafide curler, and they all were … which was proven at an actual four-end practice game between the heroes and villains held at Toronto’s Boulevard Club.

By the time we shot the Brampton curling scenes, Gross was a stressed-out star/director/co-producer with an aching back. He still looks solid on film, but he looked even better up to that point.

On that note, it’s worth mentioning the melted curling ice. The shoot was in early May and it was scorching hot outside, and the Brampton ice plant couldn’t keep up with the demand for cold. This played havoc with the shooting schedule and the amount of curling footage the filmmakers had on hand. Sharp eyes will notice some repeated throwing scenes and ring marks in the ice where stones were melting into the houses. It was a mess, and the production had to make do with what it could.

There was a draft script for a Men With Brooms sequel, but the project didn’t come to fruition.

In 2010, Gross produced a short-lived CBC sitcom of the same name, based on the fictional town the film was set in—Long Bay, Ont.—but with different characters (Gross narrated). The pilot’s curling scenes were shot at the Dundas Granite club near Hamilton, and the series scenes filmed at the Fort Rouge CC in Winnipeg. Manitoba curling legend Connie Laliberte was the technical consultant on that one.

Happy anniversary, Men With Brooms. There are more stories to be told someday … perhaps I’ll save them for the 25th celebration.