Now here come the 'Men With Brooms' prepare to clean up

Britain's gold-winning curling success has given an unexpected boost to one of the stranger films of recent years.

Men With Brooms, a comedy romance about curling, starring Naked Gun's Leslie Nielsen, may now get an early release in the UK to capitalise on our new-found fascination with the sport.

The film has been co-written by Paul Gross, the Canadian heart-throb from the Due South television series, who plays the curling hero Chris Cutter.

Ironically when Mr Gross had the idea for the movie with Robert Lantos, the producer with whom he worked on Due South, curling was chosen because, they said, "Canadians are known as being the best".

Nonetheless, Seaton Mc-Lean, of the producers Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Production, seemed confident that the British success could only benefit the film, which is due to première in Canada next month before its worldwide release. "The coverage in the Olympics and gold for Britain has really brought the sport to the attention of the public and we are sure both this and the story itself will appeal," he said yesterday. The film tells the story of four men who were friends in the curling team until Chris Cutter left town. Returning for the funeral of their former coach, Cutter agrees to try to fulfil the dead man's dream – of re-forming the team to help win the leading curling tournament.

In an acknowledgement that, like most of Britain before this week, the average film-goer may not know the rules, the Men With Brooms website provides a handy guide as well as the usual plot synopsis.

Mr Gross admits that many people had no idea what he was talking about when he started work on the project two years ago.

"When I was in Los Angeles recently, I told people I was doing this thing about curling. They didn't know where to look," he told the Toronto Sun newspaper at the time.