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Here Ellen Page as Libby and Rainn Wilson as Frank Darbo – also knows as Boltie and the Crimson Bolt – prepare for WAR!

Here’s what the Toronto International Film Folks said about SUPER:

With the recent onslaught of superhero send-ups, it seems as though this premise has become somewhat of a genre unto itself. No stranger to rebel filmmaking, James Gunn cut his teeth writing for Troma before making his directing debut with 2006’s Slither. In a similar vein, his follow-up feature combines absurd humour with balls-out violence to create something that is both unashamed and inimitable. But this time Gunn adds a new ingredient, one that is dark, dramatic and subversive to the core.

When sad sack Frank D’Arbo (Rainn Wilson) sees his ex-addict wife (Liv Tyler) willingly snatched by a seductive drug dealer (Kevin Bacon), he finds himself unable to cope. But when the finger of God blesses his brain (don’t ask), D’Arbo decides to fight back under the guise of a DIY superhero called Crimson Bolt. In order to get his wife back, he must first fight his way up the criminal ranks, and he begins by taking a monkey wrench to the foreheads of a couple who cut in line at the movies. As Crimson Bolt begins to make the headlines, a young woman from the local comic book store (Ellen Page) joins in on the fun as his sexually charged sidekick, Boltie.

The cast is dead-on, with Wilson making the heroic leap to leading man status. Page and Bacon are equally impressive and self-effacing in their supporting roles; both say and do things you could never imagine and we could never print. Rounding out the cast are appearances from longtime genre icons Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) and Troma’s own Lloyd Kaufman.

While Crimson Bolt bears likeness to the Watchmen, Defendor and Kick-Ass, James Gunn has created what is perhaps the definitive take on self-reflexive superheroes. If this outlandish dark comedy is not the zenith of its breed, God help us from what’s to come. Whether you’re new to the graphic novel game or a seasoned fanboy, you will find SUPER to live up to its name.

Colin Geddes

They forgot to call out a few stellar performances from actors in SUPER, including Andre Royo (‘The Wire”), Gregg Henry (SLiTHER), Linda Cardellini (“ER”), Sean Gunn (“Gilmore Girls”), Stephen Blackehart (Tromeo & Juliet), William Katt (“The Greatest American Hero”), Don Mac, Steve Agee (“The Sarah Silverman Show”), Valentine Miele (Tromeo & Juliet), Michelle Martin Gunn (The Changeling), and so many more!  And they also left out our overwhelmingly amazing composer, Tyler Bates (300, SLiTHER, Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen), who you can now follow on Twitter here..

Hope to see you guys in Toronto!! The whole gang will be there for the premiere on Friday, September 10!  I just got a new suit yesterday!  And there are additional screenings and other stuff you can read about HERE.

Be good,
James

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Yes, it’s true!! SUPER will be debuting SOON, and I’m rushing to get it finished. In fact, I’m late to my sound mix so I can let you know all about this.

SUPER has been screened by the officials at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been invited as an Official Selection. We will be screening on Friday, September 10, and much of the cast will be in attendance – as of now, Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Sean Gunn, Andre Royo, Stephen Blackehart, and more will all be there. And that’s not the end of our all-star list as many of the other cast members are trying to clear their busy film and TV schedules so that they can join us on the crimson carpet (there are even a couple more big names I know are coming but can’t quite share yet!)

What’s also exciting is that my good pal James Wan’s film INSIDIOUS will be playing at TIFF as well. And John Carpenter’s THE WARD! So it’s going to be a grand ol’ Masters of Horror time in Toronto this year.

I’m so, so excited to share this movie with all of you. I have never put myself so fully into any project ever, and I have never been surrounded by such an incredibly talented group of people to help pull a project, kicking and struggling and screaming, into existence!

And, in other news, after a long struggle of trying to get a Cheap Trick song in SUPER on our very meager budget, Sony Music and EMI have both agreed to the smaller fee. So thank you Sony Music, EMI, and especially the great Cheap Trick for supporting independent cinema! It’s great to know that even in these huge conglomerates there can sometimes be kind individuals with big hearts!

See you in Canada!

James

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So here are a few photos from the San Diego Comic-Con a couple weeks ago, I haven’t yet had a chance to post.  The first few are from the great Albert Ortega. Every time I do a press line or a red carpet event, I know he’s there because he always yells out “Minute Man!!”  He’s a great guy, and I hope he doesn’t care that I ripped these photos from his awesome Facebook Page.

Onto some other, non-Albert-Ortega photos.

…one of the Top 35 Superheroes You Most Want to Have Sex With.

Have an XBox or Zune? Download my experience at Comic-Con HERE.

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Ah, another birthday, come and gone. In honor of the past year, I present you these wonderful photos, some never before seen, some not so never before seen:

With the great Boltie the bunny on the set of SUPER. Probably the cutest little motherfucker who ever lived. He actually appears in the film!

I came into the kitchen one day and found Mia doing this. I have no idea why.

I hung out with Mikaela last Halloween. She told me she was going to be a fairy so I told her, what the hell, I’ll be a fairy too. When she showed up to my house she was a 1980’s workout chick. The above is my reaction to being a lone fucking fairy.

Perhaps my favorite two photos of Von Spears from the past year.

Mia on slothback at the La Brea Tar Pits. We joked that if she ever broke up with me, she wouldn’t have to tell me. She could just MMS me this photo, and I’d get the point.  She’s off to new adventures!

Boltie again, with Rooker. Two seconds later she ripped his face off. It was awesome.

Mia and I send lots of iemojis to each other. Am I a thirteen year old girl? you ask. Well, yes, actually I am.

Here is one of my favorites.

With my cinematographer, Steve Gainer, on the set of SUPER, laughing at one of our shots. Ted Hope, in the background, obviously doesn’t think it’s so funny.

This was the coldest day on set! We shot in Louisiana because the temperatures were more moderate than they were in Detroit, where we originally wanted to shoot. But they didn’t seem so moderate on this particular, below 10 degrees day. But I guess I didn’t have it so bad – on the other side of the lens is Ellen Page in her skimpy spandex outfit.

With Lloyd Kaufman, my old boss from Troma Entertainment. Every public appearance I ever make I’m accosted by some disgruntled Troma fan asking me why I cut Lloyd out of SLiTHER. You’ll all be happy to know all of Lloyd’s two lines in SUPER are intact.

Rainn Wilson’s horse loved my tomato juice.

This year for the Fourth of July, Mia and I decided to give out traditional Japanese treats.

A warning to those at one of my brother’s Sunday night parties not to share everything we do online (that’s for me to do). Shirt courtesy of Pants Not Found.

Stuffing Mia in a cabinet.

While in Shreveport, I went to a roller derby with Ted Hope and our first AD Sheri Davani. The best part was watching these local mascots roll around the rink. They really couldn’t see where the fuck they were going and kept running into walls and falling down. It was magically pathetic.

With a baby alligator in New Orleans.

Without a doubt one of my favorite moments of the year was marching in a parade down the streets of New Orleans after my buddy Pete Alton’s wedding. Pure, exuberant joy.

Mia’s feet with a fetal skull.

My brother Sean’s kitten, The Business, was found abandoned in some bushes. Sean and his girlfriend Gina had to bottle feed it to keep it alive. Here he is at only a couple weeks old. Cute as fuck and totally deranged.

Me and my good pal Michael Rosenbaum eating at Fred Segal. While this was happening, paparazzi neither of us saw were snapping our photos. They showed up online the next day.

My favorite part of the moose is where I put my penis.

Von Spears somehow did this to himself.

Mia at the Sunny Jim Sea Cave in San Diego. We had to go down this very steep, extraordinarily long stairwell – and Mia was wearing high heels.

My second-favorite egg-laying mammal, the echidna, at the San Diego Zoo.

One of our Masters of Horror dinners. I think I was able to make three this year.

The stormy sky while driving home from one of my last days shooting SUPER (this time in L.A.) We were close to the finish line, and I was overcome with emotion. It was beautiful.

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Last night Mia and I went out to sushi with one of my favorite musicians, Moneybrother (AKA Anders Wendin).

Anders is one of my favorite talents in the world. I first heard of his music many years ago, when he played with the little-known punk/ska/soul/power pop band Monster – Monster’s second album, Rockers’ Delight, is one of my favorite albums of all time.  Anders then went on to more mainstream Swedish success with his solo project, Moneybrother.  If any of you read my list of 50 Favorite Songs of the Decade a few months back, you might recognize Moneybrother as having TWO songs on that list (Reconsider Me and Hurting All the Way with You Joanna).  It was an honor to meet him, and loved discovering he’s a super nice guy in addition to being an amazing talent.

Anders is one of a handful of musicians I’ve been courting to use their music in SUPER. Putting music in an independent film is a tricky matter – often songs will cost into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for use in a film.  Just as we had big stars – Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Rooker, Nathan Fillion, and more – who all agreed to act in the film for guild minimums – we also have to rely on musical talent who will let us use their music for almost-free.  The music in SUPER is extremely important – perhaps foolishly, I sometimes specifically designed and even shot scenes to songs I wanted to use.  Fortunately, I am vigilant if nothing else, and have personally approached many of the folks whose music I wanted to use.

Anders is one of the rock stars whose back-catalog song is extremely important to the film; and he’s also one of the people who has been working with us to make his music affordable.  Other great acts have been working with us as well, and I will reveal them in all good time…

World’s nicest guy.

That said, one person deserves a SUPER shout-out – my friend and fellow film director, Rob Zombie.  Rob’s music is highly sought after for use in film soundtracks.  But Rob was kind enough to allow us to use one of his most famous tracks for nearly nothing.  Not only was this a great coup as the song sounds terrific in the film, it also helped us in showing other acts that even the enormously popular, massively famous guys were willing to let us use their tracks out of love for independent film and unique projects. For years now I’ve been telling people Rob is not only one of my favorite film directors, but he’s also one of the greatest guys all around.  He proved that to me once again with this latest unselfish act.

On a different subject, after eating dinner with Moneybrother last night, Mia and I stopped by Ralph’s Supermarket.  I had to take a piss, and found the bathroom to be surprisingly classy:

Bye,

James

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I present to you our Top 25 Blogs of the Year – not necessarily in order of quality or entertainment value, but simply in the numbers of hits they’ve received.

25)

I Fucked a Teenage Werewolf, and Other Fun Photos

A documentation of my girlfriend, Mia Matsumiya’s second trip to Los Angeles, complete with our visits to the Museum of Death, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, and more.

24)

Von Spears, Pooping, and Jesus: A Year of Selected Tweets

Posted on my one year anniversary of joining Twitter.

23)

Our Visit to the Bunny Museum: 24,000 Freaky Bunnies

This was from the same trip to L.A. where I wrote about the teenage werewolf. However, the Bunny Museum deserved a blog all its own.  It’s a home in Pasadena run by a loopy, middle-aged woman. The home is filled with 24,000 bunny statues, stuffed animals, etc. After writing this blog, I felt a little guilty, wondering if I made just a little bit too much fun of the lady. Oh well…

22)

My Movie SUPER with Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, and Liv Tyler

The first real announcement of my new movie, before Kevin Bacon and others joined the cast. Since then we’ve already wrapped filming and have edited most of the picture! (PS It’s coming swell.)

21)

The 15 Best Sequels of All Time

I polled people on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace and came up with this list of the 15 best sequels of all time. As with most lists like this, I list my personal favorites along with the poll results.

20)

My Tween-tastic Godfather Remake

This was my announcement of my Godfather remake with an all-tween cast. Although it’s obviously a joke, a few sites took it seriously, and I received some angry emails about it.

19)

25 Crappy Things Jesus Has Done

A list of some of the truly shitty things Jesus has done to me over the years.

18)

Fish with Human Teeth

Fuck this motherfucking fish!

17)

Sharing Steve Agee’s Pants with Mia Matsumiya

A blog I wrote in literally five minutes that ended up getting tens of thousands of views, perhaps due to tall-men-mushing-inside-of-heavy-dude’s-pants-with-a-small-woman fetishists.

16)

The 22 Worst Movie Sequels of All Time

Another poll: as with all my polls, the “worst of ” lists sadly get many more hits than the “best of” lists.

15)

Jesus Rode a Dinosaur

The above coloring book photo ended up being a hoax. I actually suspected it when I put the blog together, but it was too awesome to pass up. And it’s not far from the truth – there actually IS a triceratops with a saddle on it in the Creationist Museum.

14)

Evolution of a Movie Poster: Test Posters for SLiTHER

This was an early blog on the new JamesGunn.com that was picked up by several horror-news outlets. It has many of the original concept posters for SLiTHER.

13)

Behind the Scenes of PG PORN: SQUEAL HAPPY WHORES with Photos!

The actual video for PG PORN: SQUEAL HAPPY WHORES has gotten a tremendous amount of hits on JamesGunn.com – this Behind the Scenes blog gets hits off of people who come to the site to see the video.

12)

Nathan Fillion, Linda Cardellini, & Others Join the Cast of SUPER

Another blog picked up by news outlets – it was the announcement of additional SUPER cast members. Cast members not mentioned in the blog are Steve Agee and William Katt (that’s right – the Greatest American Hero!)

11)

HUMANZEE! is Live! Watch It Here Now!

The debut of my personal favorite web short.

10)

The Adam Carolla/James Gunn Podcast Is Up

I’ve been on Carolla’s podcast twice, but this first podcast continues to gain interest. I’m actually going back to the show next week for a third time.

9)

My Painful Xbox Experience

Another blog picked up by the news sites. I slightly regret writing this. But it outlines the troubles I had with XBox creating the Comedy Goes Horror series.

8)

The Top 35 Superheroes You Want to Have Sex With

Another Twitter/Facebook/MySpace poll – the one on which I had the largest response – in which we discuss which superheroes we would most like to bang. I think the sexy “photos” helped the blog get the massive amount of hits it has gotten.

7)

11 Even Worse Songs of All Time

The poll on the Worst Songs of All Time ended up getting picked up by all sorts of outlets, and this one rode in on its wake. These tunes are even worse than the ones you guys voted for. One of my favorite lists.

6)

Poll Results: The 20 Worst Songs of All Time

5)

Demo Derby 2! Tons of Photos! And More!

This one’s a complete mystery. This blog is over two years 0ld – it documents a trip I took with Linda Cardellini, my brother Sean, JP Cabrera, and others, to the demolition derby and L.A. county fair. But still, month after month, it continues to rake in tens of thousands of hits. I still like the blog a lot – so, though baffled, I’m happy it’s still receiving some love.

4)

The Official Mascot of JamesGunn.com Is…

In my #1 blog, I asked folks to pick one of the disgusting creatures to be our site’s official mascot. The adorable aye-aye was chosen. He can be see in our site logo.

3)

The Porn Star Matrix: The 50 Most Powerful Porn Stars on the Internet

When putting together PG PORN, I created a system of choosing the most popular porn stars to feature in the videos. This was me sharing my secret formula with everyone, and it consistently gets hits from month to month.

2)

The Creepiest Things You’ll Ever See

This blog is about three years old, but it was picked up by Reddit and other outlets this year, and ended up getting massive amounts of hits.

1)

Evolution Fucked Your Shit Up: The World’s 50 Freakiest Animals

By far my most popular blog ever (a spot formerly held by 50 Ways to Call Someone a Cocksucker in a Compliment), it ended up on the front pages of Digg and Reddit, not once, but twice, months apart. Has received millions of hits.

In the next few days I’ll be posting blogs of my favorite movies and songs of 2009 and the decade. Keep an eye out!

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