James Gunn Reveals Exclusive Super Details

Ahhh, the benefits of a Jesuit education. Saint Louis University graduate James Gunn, writer of Scooby Doo, Slither, Dawn of the Dead and the upcoming Super (which we talked about here) has been making the rounds preparing for production on his self-proclaimed dark comedic take on a superhero. The film stars Rainn Wilson of The Office, Ellen Page, and Liv Tyler. On his personal blog, James wrote:

“Rainn and I have been working together on the project for a few months now – Rainn will be playing the lead role of Frank D’Arbo who dresses up as a superhero called the Crimson Bolt; he’s got no superpowers other than a pipe wrench.  Rainn and I both worked hard to get the best possible folks involved.  We were lucky to get Ted Hope to produce – he’s done such movies as Happiness, The Ice Storm, The Savages, American Splendor, and 21 Grams. This is not a wacky, over-the-top comedy.  Super is a dark, comedic, gritty, very unusual, and grounded film and I think Ted is just the guy to help us get it done right.”

However, when I spoke to him about Super, James Gunn was resistant to the idea that his film should be described as a deconstructionist superhero film alongside the likes of The Dark Knight, Watchmen or Kick-Ass:

“My movie Super is really not a superhero movie. It’s a movie about a human being, who is flawed, and it’s about having faith. And what exactly is faith? What exactly is insanity? That’s what it’s about. It’s an independent film, low-budget, and the actors that are doing it because they like the characters and they’re doing it for scale … it’s really not a superhero movie. That’s just sort of the icing on the cake.”

Gunn, who once aspired to be a rock musician, also revealed his style of forming a film to fit musical choices with composer Tyler Bates (Slither, Dawn of the Dead):

“Writing a pop song is really not that different from cutting a movie, especially the editing. Editing is really a musical thing, it’s about a rhythm and hitting the right beats [...] with Super, I’ve already got the music all picked out, and not only that but we’re writing the score now for the key romantic and action sequences. I can actually shoot the movie to the music, something that I learned from Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone.”

He also fleshed out what we’ll be seeing in Ellen Page’s character of Libby:

“Certain characters sometimes steal the screenplay. With Super, the character of Libby, the character Ellen Page is playing, is a comic store clerk who figures out that Frank, played by Rainn Wilson, is going around the city dressed as a superhero, beating people up with a pipe wrench. She’s a sociopath, and she wants to be his sidekick, so she starts dressing up and following him around, basically inserting herself into his life. She’s really the best character in the movie … she was a character that just ‘happened.’”

The film Gunn described is certainly more thoughtful and personal than initial reports indicated, as the writer/director states that the script is one of the “very favorite things I’ve ever written.” I’m looking forward to seeing the final product when the film is released in 2010. Keep your eyes peeled for more info!