Paul Gross is taking another run at the box office, this time with Gunless, though he’ll have some competition from fellow Canuck Brendan Fraser and the critters of Furry Vengeance.

The expectations are high for Gunless — out on 155 screens through Alliance Films — which is Gross’ follow-up to the 2008 war drama Passchendaele, a box office hit with domestic earnings of $4.4 million. (It opened on 190 screens.)

‘We hope to end up with very good opening numbers,’ says producer Shawn Williamson, who coproduced the western comedy with his partner at Brightlight Pictures (Fifty Dead Men Walking) Stephen Hegyes, and Niv Fichman of Rhombus Media (Blindness).

Williamson believes the film’s wide appeal coupled with an aggressive marketing campaign by Alliance will lead to box office success.

‘Alliance are handling this in the way they would any U.S. release… it’s getting everything from bus stop posters through television ads during the hockey playoffs… so the exposure is significant,’ Williamson notes.

‘It’s a wide, national campaign in line with both Hollywood fare and Passchendaele,’ concurs Mark Slone, SVP of Alliance Films, though he did not disclose the P&A budget.

Gunless, directed by William Phillips (Foolproof), follows an American gunslinger (Gross) who happens upon a sleepy Canadian town when he crosses the border to escape a bounty hunter.

There are no plans to open Gunless in the U.S. at this time and the producers have not yet released any of the foreign rights, according to Williamson, who says the plan is to watch and see how the movie does in Canada.

Meanwhile, E1 Entertainment is sending the family-aimed Furry Vengeance to 233 screens, while it bows on 2,600 screens stateside through Summit Entertainment.

Also opening Friday:

• Matthew Bissonnette’s road-trip movie Passenger Side, named one of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2009, bows in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver through Kinosmith. The film stars Adam Scott (Knocked Up) and Joel Bissonnette (Zodiac) as two brothers touring L.A., and also bowed at last year’s TIFF.

• Among other Hollywood releases is Warner Bros.’ horror remake A Nightmare on Elm Street, featuring Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) as Freddy Krueger, out on 3,100 screens.