Rainn Wilson, James Gunn, and Ellen Page Talk Super at SXSW!

After the showing of Super at SXSW, writer/director James Gunn, and stars Ellen Page and Rainn Wilson stuck around for a Q & A with the audience. With the first question, we got to see Wilson go on a rant. A word of advice: If you ever talk/interview Rainn Wilson, don’t ask him what superpower he would like to have. After Page’s magnificent answer of “I’d just like to be able to tolerate gluten,” Wilson told everyone what he thought about the question. “I’m sorry, but that is a horrible question.” He went on to say that he gets asked that question all the time, but he had never heard an answer as good as Page’s.

While there are some similarities between Super and Kick-Ass like both films being about ordinary people putting on costumes to fight crime and the female side kick stealing the show, Gunn said that he had written Super in 2002. So anyone thinking it was a copycat film can know that it wasn’t. Gunn said he sat on the script for so long because he couldn’t find the right person to play the lead. Then his ex-wife, Jenna Fischer, aka Rainn’s Office co-star Pam, convinced both Wilson and Gunn they would be a perfect fit. Then everything else fell into place. Gunn described Super as being a conversation about morality, God and spirituality, and how pop culture is in our lives. After seeing the film, I would definitely agree about all of those, and that’s also about crazy ultra-violence.

At one point during the Q & A it was discovered that the kid who played the younger version of Rainn’s character was in the audience so they called him up on stage. Gunn asked him if Super was the most graphic film he ever saw, and the kid replied, “Well, I’ve seen Step Brothers.” After much laughing and joking, Wilson and Gunn came to the conclusion that the tag line on all the Super posters was going to be “A Bloodier Step Brothers!”

Page remained fairly quite throughout the whole Q & A, while Wilson and Gunn jabbered on. You can read my review of Super to see if it’s a film for you. It hits theaters April 1, 2011.

BEWARE!!! Big Spoiler Alert Below!!!

You’ve been warned!

Boltie doesn’t survive through the entire film. Someone asked if there was ever a version of the script where Boltie survived. Gunn replied, “No. She was dead in the first draft and stayed dead for nine years.”

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!