Someone clearly left a '90s edition of Mad Libs lying around, because this is one odd announcement. Saban Films (yes, an off-shoot of the company that gave us Power Rangers) has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to a thriller starring Val Kilmer (yes, the forgotten Batman) from executive producer Dick Wolf (yes, the creator of Law & Order).
German director Stephan Rick makes his English-language debut with The Super, starring Patrick John Fleuger (Chicago P.D.) as a former cop investigating a string of disappearances at the New York high-rise he supervises. Val Kilmer plays the shady maintenance guy, in a performance that should be effectively creepy. John J. McLaughlin, who co-wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning Black Swan, handled script duties.
A release date for the film has not yet been announced.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
