Nicholas Braun Describes 'Hit Somebody' As Kevin Smith's 'Finest,' More Details Revealed

Today brings two minor updates on Kevin Smith's Hit Somebody. The first is from Nicholas Braun, the actor who'll eventually star in the film as a hockey enforcer who dreams of scoring just one goal. We spoke to Braun on the set of his latest movie, Dylan Kidd's Get A Job, and he said the version of the script he read is Kevin Smith's "finest" work and a "love letter to hockey" complete with flashbacks to the origins of the sport.

Also, Smith was recently on Sirius XM's The Opie and Anthony Show and gave more information on a supporting character comedian Jim Norton will play in the film, a goalie based on hockey legend Glenn Hall. Read more after the jump.

On the set of Get a Job, in which Braun plays one of four friends struggling through post-college life, I asked him what the latest was on Hit Somebody and if he'd read the script. He said the following:

I read it when it was going to be two movies. So I read the first 150 pages of what he had. It was amazing. It was a beautiful piece of writing, wasn't all funny. It's like this hockey lore, this legend of hockey including flashbacks from when hockey was first invented. It's kind of this love letter to hockey by Kevin, with this back drop of this Canadian farm boy turned hockey player except he's terrible. And just beats the s*** out of people. I can't wait to get started. I'm not exactly sure when we're going to start but I couldn't believe it when I read it. I was like 'Holy s***.' It's going to be Kevin's finest, I think.

That statement leads one to believe Braun hasn't read Smith's latest work, which combines both parts into a hypothetically more economic version. There's no word if that version will include the historical flashbacks Braun mentions or concentrate more on the story of his character, Buddy McKraken, but we'll surely find out soon.

What will be in the film is a character based on Hall of Fame Goalkeeper Glenn Hall, a soft spoken man who never wore a mask and famously threw up before each game. Smith has stated for sometime that comedian Jim Norton would play the character in the film but recently added the character has three big scenes and is sprinkled throughout the rest of the movie as well. He also asked Norton to work on an almost Winnie The Pooh voice for the character.

Finally, though Braun wasn't sure, Smith stated he hopes to start shooting by the end of the year. That should give him enough time to try and corral all of the people he's said would be appearing in the film from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, to Colin Hanks, Norton and the majority of the Red State cast.