Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler join Super for Ted Hope

UTA packaged the project directed by James Gunn and will be handling North American sales with WME. HanWay Films is handling international sales.  

Wilson will play an ordinary man who transforms himself into pseudo superhero The Crimson Bolt and wages a war on crime after his wife has a fling with a drug dealer.

Armed with a wrench and the aid of a sidekick in the form of a psychopathic teen who works in a comic book store, The Crimson Bolt goes after his wife’s lover. Tyler plays the wife and Page, who stars in Toronto entry Whip It, plays Wilson’s sidekick.

Shooting is set to begin in the US in December. Gunn directed Slither and wrote Dawn Of The Dead and Scooby Doo 1 & 2.

Hope co-founded This Is That with his partner Anne Carey and most recently produced the Miramax release Adventureland. This Is That is currently in production on Anton Corbijn’s Untitled Italy Project starring George Clooney.

“I’ve long wanted to explore our worldwide obsession with superhero myths – not the fantasy, but the reality of it,” Hope said. “I could only dream of finding a script as funny, audacious, and heartbreakingly real as James’.”

“I’m delighted to be working with Ted Hope, a producer we’ve admired for many years, and James Gunn, a talented genre director with great flair, on this fun and commercial title,” HanWay CEO Tim Haslam said.

HanWay’s Toronto sales slate includes festival opener Creation starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, as well as Lone Sherfig’s An Education starring Sundance breakout Carey Mulligan, Scott Hicks’ The Boys Are Back starring Clive Owen, Harry Brown with Michael Caine, Perrier’s Bounty with Cillian Murphy and Jim Broadbent, and Danis Tanovic’s Triage starring Colin Farrell.

Films in post include Sam Taylor Wood’s Nowhere Boy, We Want Sex starring Sally Hawkins from producer Stephen Woolley, and Gurinder Chadha’s It’s A Wonderful Afterlife.