It’s taken him close to ten years, but writer-director James Gunn finally has his superhero film under his belt with a big capital letter insignia.
The movie is Super, a wild and wooly take on the comic book hero, starring Rainn Wilson as Frank D’Arbo, a short order cook who goes ballistic when his wife (Liv Tyler) dumps him for a local drug dealer (Kevin Bacon). Donning the makeshift guise of a wrench-wielding superhero, “the Crimson Bolt,” D’Arbo is soon joined in costume by a young female comic book geek (Ellen Page), clobbering not just bad guys, but people who simply annoy him.
“I call the film Napoleon Dynamite meets Taxi Driver,” says Gunn, and, you know, it’s an apt description.
Gunn, who counts a stint at ultralow-budget Troma Studios and writing two big screen Scooby-Doo movies as his education, has been trying to get Super flying for a long time, but the project had its share of fits and starts over the years.
“I wrote it in 2002,” says Gunn by phone during a press tour stop in Boston. “Originally, I saw different actors who wanted to play the role, but couldn’t find anybody who had the comedic chops or dramatic chops and who was big enough or threatening enough to kick ass in the final act of the film.”
One of the problems with funding Super was the belief by some of the producers that film has mass market appeal.
“I had financing, but they (the producers) kept thinking it would go wide,” recalls Gunn. “But this film is not for everybody. It’s a dark, tonally complicated, violent film and it’s a rough movie. It’s an art house grindhouse movie.”
When the funding eventually came together, so did the cast, including The Office star Wilson in the lead. “Rainn was suggested by Jenna Fischer, my former wife,” says Gunn, who directed the actress in the creepy 2006 thriller Slither, his helming debut.
Like other recent pokes at the comic book superhero ethos, such as Defendor with Woody Harrelson or Special with Michael Rapaport, Super shows that being a person that people can count on to stop evil is not all it is cracked up to be. And with its over-the-top humor and decidedly sour character at the center, one wonders if Gunn’s intention was to spoof the whole comic book landscape.
“Look, I’ve been reading comics since I was a kid and still read them,” says Gunn, who also scripted Zack Snyder’s 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake. “It wasn’t my intention to make fun of comics at all. I just wanted to look at the seedy underbelly of a comic book superhero. I think of it as a consideration of good and evil.”
Gumm says that comic books have taken things in such extreme directions before, pointing to Garth Ennis’ take on The Punisher, which served as the inspiration for the 2004 film with Thomas Jane and John Travolta.
In fact, sometimes you can’t tell if Wilson’s Frank is good or evil. He tries to stop the drug dealers who pimp out his wife and keep her on smack, but he also smashes a guy to smithereens when he butts into line at a movie theater. So, audiences root for Frank’s efforts, but are afraid how far he will go or how he will be provoked. This adds an extra level to the superhero happenings that unfold.
One of the elements that make the over-the-top Super—which is being released unrated—are the top-notch supporting players that aid the perfectly cast Wilson. For example, Page is hilarious as the sexually aggressive sidekick wannabe who remains in perpetual motion throughout the film. One would think the Juno star was close to the part she plays since she pulls it off so well, but Gunn claims that’s not the case.
“She’s very, very different,” he says. “Ellen Page is soft-spoken and much different than that character. She’s not snarky like her other characters. She’s dear and earnest and quiet; she’ll come to a party at my house and believe me, she’s not the one making jokes. Plus, Rainn knew her from Juno.”
For the twitchy drug-dealing villain of Super, Gunn admits he lucked out by getting the right actor for the job. “Kevin Bacon was my favorite actor from Diner, a movie I love,” says Gunn. “We had another person cast who ended up being a flake, and I was afraid he was going to screw up my film. Two weeks before filming, I fired that actor. I thought Kevin would be perfect and he was willing to come aboard, and he came on set and he added the most to his character.”
As for Tyler, who plays Frank’s wasted wife, her presence helped get the movie funded because she has a strong audience overseas after appearing in such films as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Incredible Hulk and The Strangers.
Most of the performers stuck to the script, but Wilson did the most improvising. Part of the reason, according to Gunn, was that he did 45-55 setups over 24 days as opposed to the 20-30 on a typical indie shoot. “Everything was storyboarded even though my storyboards were crap,” says Gunn.
Now, Gunn is actually looking forward to direct movies with studio backing. He’s already directed a segment of the Farrelly Brothers’ comedy anthology Movie 43 (his segment features Elizabeth Banks and Josh Duhamel), and hopes to hear about another new, studio-supported project soon. In the meantime, he worked on video games that will be revealed at this summer’s San Diego Comic Con.
As for the reputed sequel to Dawn of the Dead, Gunn has discussed it with director Zack Snyder (Sucker Punch), but not lately.
“We talked about it, but then he went on to other things and I’m not interested,” says Gunn.
And when asked if there’s any chance he’d direct a third entry in the popular Scooby Doo series, Gunn shrugs, “That’s not happening.”
When he’s informed that kids love the movies, he adds, “Great, well, that’s who they were written for.”