Zombie to take on Bruins/Flyers rivalry in new hockey movie

By: Gayle Fee, Laura Raposa and Inside Track

The bloody, brawling Bruins-Philadelphia Flyers rivalry in the 1970s was the stuff of legend, and now the ice drama will be brought to the big screen by the Bay State’s own filmmaker-slash-heavy-metal-heavy Rob Zombie.

Zombie, a Haverhill homey, is writing and directing “Broad Street Bullies,” a biopic about the scrappy Philly team’s unlikely 1974 Stanley Cup run.

“I was always a hockey fan. I loved the Boston Bruins as a kid,” Zombie told the Herald’s Dave Wedge. “Especially in the ’70s. That’s when I was most fanatical — when Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito were there. But I loved the Flyers too, even though they seemed like evil guys.”

It will be the first foray away from the horror genre for the aptly named Zombie, who attained cult status with his shock flicks “The Devil’s Rejects” and “House of 1,000 Corpses.” He also directed remakes of “Halloween” and “Halloween 2” and said he was approached for the Flyers movie by someone who was a fan of his gritty style.

“They had seen my movies and thought that the style of filmmaking would fit,” he said.

The film tells the story of the legendary Flyers-Bruins Cup battle, which Philly took in six games, marking the first championship for an NHL expansion team. The film focuses on Hall of Fame center Bobby Clarke, a diabetic from Flin Flon, Manitoba, who was told as a child that he would never be healthy enough for a career in hockey.

“A lot of it takes part in the early part of Bobby Clarke’s life,” Zombie said. “At the heart of it, you have a guy who nobody thought was good enough to be in the NHL, who became simultaneously the most hated and the most valuable player. He kind of represents the spirit of the whole team and the city of Philadelphia at that time.”

While he still calls himself a Bruins fan, Zombie admitted: “The Bruins are the main villain in the movie.”

The flick is scheduled to start filming this winter in Canada and Philadelphia.