Take an overly self-confident, kiss-up paper salesman and combine him with the daughter of a big-lipped rock legend, a movie star that has a six degrees of separation movie game named after him, a tiny girl that has been pregnant, had the ability to “phase” through objects and knock girls on their butts and what do you get? James Gunn’s next film Super.
The Office’s Rainn Wilson (The Rocker) stars as a regular Joe type guy, Frank, that decides to fight crime as a superhero (sans powers) after his wife Sarah, played by Liv Tyler (The Incredible Hulk), runs off with a slimy drug dealer, Jacques, played by Kevin Bacon. Taking the persona Crimson Bolt, Frank teams up with Libby, played by Ellen Page (Juno, Whip It!) who decides to be his sociopath sidekick, Boltie.
So how would Gunn make a great cast like that better? By adding in an actor who’s played a space cowboy and an actress who’s played smarty-pants geek girl. Every geek’s favorite brown coat, Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Trucker) and the super cute Linda Cardellini (Scooby Doo, Brokeback Mountain) have joined Super.
According to Gunn’s blog, Fillion will play a pop icon in Super who will be the inspiration for Frank’s Crimson Bolt persona – while Cardellini will eventually become the new love interest, although at this time her name is only listed as “Pet Store Employee.” Other additions to the cast include Sean Gunn (Gilmore Girls), Stephen Blackehart (who’s made a living from being in at least six knock-off film released by The Asylum), Valentine Miele, and Andre Royo (The Wire).
Super, written and directed by Gunn, should fit into place nicely with the rest of the director’s filmography of classic cult favorites. Slither remains one of my favorite horror/comedy films that never really got the mainstream recognition it deserved; while Scooby-Doo, on the other hand, did receive a fair amount of mainstream success (but was never really taken seriously). Of course, a movie about a walking, talking, crime-solving CGI dog on an island of ghouls run by Mr. Bean is sort of hard to take seriously.
If you’ve never had a chance to watch any of Gunn’s work on PG Porn, then I highly recommend you run over to Spike TV and watch a few episodes. They are mildly NSFW and contain no nudity but are full of double entendres, tons of cleavage and star Sean Gunn and Nathan Fillion alongside some of the adult movie industry’s…um…”biggest” stars. It’s super funny and worth the watch.
My only concern for Super is that it now stars several people who have had popular shows cancelled – Fillion (Firefly) and Cardellini (Freak and Geeks) – and a guy that hasn’t done anything that didn’t go straight to DVD bargain bins (Blackehart). I’m not knocking them, nor am I questioning Gunn’s choice in actors and actresses for his film – quite the opposite; I like ALL of his choices but I can’t help but be wary of the “curses” that follow Fillion and company.
Doesn’t matter really, because either way I’m still going to watch this in theaters and I can already tell you I’ll own the Blu-ray when it drops as well.
What are your thoughts on the new cast announcements for Super and how do you think it will fair with mainstream audiences?
Super kicks the living snot out of bad guys with his pipe wrench sometime in 2010.
