Disney Working on a David Ayres Movie

It's a tale for the times and Disney has signed on to take it to the big screen.

David Ayres, the operations manager at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (the old Maple Leaf Gardens) in Toronto, suited up for the Carolina Hurricanes as an emergency goalie against the Toronto Maple Leafs and registered his first and only NHL win one year ago today. He was the Zamboni driver for the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies at the time.

Now he'll be suiting up for a different role: as a writer and director for a Disney production that will tell his story.

Ayers told Sportsnet's Luke Fox that following the win last year, he was contacted by late night talk show host James Corden to discuss making a movie about it:

He let me know he had a production company. No pressure: 'If you ever want a movie, let me know.' [...] We listened to 12 pitches from all the different people. I still went back to James Corden to talk to him three times. He wanted me to be in the movie: 'You’d be a producer and be part of it from start to finish, with the writing and everything.' That's kinda cool, him wanting me to tell the story and put a little spin on it. I guess his neighbour was a guy who works high up in Disney, and they went for a walk one night. That's how the whole Disney thing came about. So, we'll see what happens. A little slow now with COVID, but once we get the ball rolling, it’ll be fine. Once we start writing it, I think they'll go two years from there.