Mystery, Alaska
Short description
Mystery, Alaska is a small, isolated town where life centres on the weekly pond hockey games that pit local players against one another. When a resident writes an article about the town for a national sports magazine, the community suddenly attracts outside attention, and its amateur team is offered an exhibition match against the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. The players, led by the town sheriff, and the residents around them prepare for the game while long-standing tensions and rivalries surface.
Directed by Jay Roach, the film was released in 1999 and followed his second Austin Powers instalment, coming before Meet the Parents. David E. Kelley and Sean O'Byrne wrote the screenplay, with Kelley producing alongside Howard Baldwin. Russell Crowe plays John Biebe, Hank Azaria appears as Charles Danner, and the cast includes Mary McCormack, Burt Reynolds, Lolita Davidovich and Ron Eldard, among a large ensemble of credited performers.
The production had a budget of 28 million US dollars and took about 9 million worldwide, a modest return relative to its cost. Audience response has been mildly positive: on IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from roughly 30,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.3 out of 10 from around 291 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 5.5 out of 10 from 80 reviews, lower than the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- For the filming of this movie, Russell had to learn to ice skate from scratch. He did so for several months (from November to January) under the supervision of Howard Baldwin, the producer of "The Alaska Mystery," accompanied by the Pittsburgh Penguins team—Baldwin once owned it.
- Kevin Durand (who played Adam “Tree” Lane) rapped for the TOFOG track “Nowhere” (from the album “Gaslight”), and even performed with the band once at a concert in Coffs Harbour.
- In the original script, Russell's character, the sheriff, was also supposed to investigate a murder as the story progressed. But that idea was later abandoned.
- Mary McCormack, who played Russell's wife, is actually a big fan of the New York Rangers. During filming, she even wore their signature cap.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
