A while ago I came across the poster for a movie called Boy Wonder, and was instantly curious about both the title and the image of the main character all brooding and face painted. Very super heroish right? So I watched the movie and was very impressed indeed, although it was nothing like I was expecting at all. Boy Wonder is a dark tale of revenge and obsession with a sting in the tail. It features top notch performances from a relatively unknown cast, as well as a very assured directorial debut from Michael Morrissey who also wrote the script, and was good enough to have a little chat with me about the film.
CBM: So you wrote and directed Boy Wonder; was it a project you had been working on for a long time? And when it came time to get a studio behind it how did you fare initially?
MM:
I wrote Boy Wonder back in 2000 and since then I had been tweaking, rewriting and trying to raise the money to get the movie made. As you can tell it took awhile. In regard to a studio getting behind it, no one wanted it. My meetings with executives at the studios were filled with comments like "Where is his costume?", "Can we make him fly, or give him a superpower?", or "Good guys don't kill people". It was an eyeopener to say the least. In the end I had to do it myself.
Speaking of Superheroes, although the movie is arguably a costumed vigilante story (well, briefly, he does put on that face-paint!), and the trailer suggests that it might be similar to the likes of say Kick-Ass or Super, it is really something very different altogether. Were you conscious that this would most likely be how the movie was perceived, or was that always your intention?
First of all I hate the trailer. It was put together by the distribution company and they wanted to pitch it as an action film and although there is action in the film that is not what Boy Wonder is. That being said I do consider this a SuperHero movie. For me this is what a superhero would be like in the real world. I wanted to keep that dark and serious tone that the comics I loved had. I didn't want to dumb it down, I wanted to make a serious film about the genre and hold nothing back. The people that I know that read comics are really smart and love good story and appreciate dark and complex characters that's why i think Nolan's Dark Knight is such a success, he stayed true to who the character was and the core fan base responded. So yes it was my intention to make a superhero movie but not everyone will see it that way.
Let's talk about that title. Obviously the first impression "Boy Wonder" will make on our readers is of Batman's sidekick Robin, but I'm assuming it was more of a reference to Sean's mental and physical prowess?
Actually the name is a bit of misdirection. On the surface here is the kid who is a great student, amazing athlete, and he battles crime. Wow he is the Boy Wonder! But scratch that surface and look a little closer and you find that the hero you are cheering for might not be what he seems. I lot of this film is about perception and I wanted people to go in thinking they were going to find a typical hero story and then be surprised and what it really is. I knew I was going to get crap from the comic community but I am a fan myself and knew that if I had to explain it I could.
Roger Ebert listed Boy Wonder as one of his top movies of 2011. How did that feel?
Insane. I am so blown away by that it would be impossible to explain. I grew up watching Roger Ebert review movies and what I love about him is that he is not afraid to go against the grain as say that he likes something. He is one of the most highly respected film critics of all time and he loved my movie, 3 and half out of 4 stars, it does not get any better than that. It was also the only review that made my parents say WOW!
Are you working on anything else right now that you would like to tell us about?
I am working on two projects, one is a script called "MOTHER" which is a Psychological/Thriller with a slant toward horror. And the other one is about Magic, and yes Harry P. has been there and done that but this is a bit of a different take. It is about a MIT student who figures out the connection between science and magic and it turns his world (and ours) upside down.
Sounds interesting, I look forward to hearing more about them. So if you had the chance to direct/write an adaptation of any comic book what would it be?
DAREDEVIL!!! Give me Daredevil!! That character deserves a real movie.
Well hopefully David Slade will deliver on that! Thanks so much to Michael Morrissey for taking the time to answer my questions, and do yourself a favor and check out
Boy Wonder, you won't regret it. Visit the movie's official site
HERE and like them of Facebook
HERE.