Spinning Platters Interview: Rainn Wilson and James Gunn on “Super”

Rainn Wilson and James Gunn at WonderCon in San Francisco last weekend. Photo by Kendall Whitehouse.

Rainn Wilson and writer/director James Gunn were in San Francisco this past weekend to promote their bold and demented new film, Super (read our Spinning Platters review here), at WonderCon. It was my first time entering the WC fray, and I found myself wishing I’d brought a bag of bread crumbs while navigating the labyrinthine expanse of Moscone South. But eventually I found the designated press room, where I waited patiently with a table of my fellow online press while Wilson and Gunn worked their way down a seemingly endless line of video interviews. One queasy highlight of this was watching Gunn being forced to awkwardly refer to “Jenna Fischer, my ex-wife” each time he was asked how Wilson came to be involved with the project.

But eventually the video interviews concluded, at which point they were escorted directly to our waiting table. “Here are the nerds!” Wilson cried out in relief upon approaching us. As they got seated (and Wilson bellowed “Hello machines!” into our assorted collection of recording devices), we kicked off a lively conversation on topics like how to make a homicidal maniac sympathetic, pioneering the concept of superhero female-to-male rape, and Wilson’s efforts to keep his character as far from Dwight as possible.

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Wondercon: The 2011 Film Panels

 

Geoff Johns (love his Flash stuff with Kolins) asks Ryan Reynolds why he's so awesome. (Photo from Nicole Abalde on Flickr. Thanks for sharing!)

The 2011 Wondercon film panel lineup was the worst in recent memory. It was more notable for what was missing (Captain America, Thor, Super 8, Pirates of the Caribbean) than what was there (Immortals, Priest, The Three Musketeers). Jon Favreau noticed that movies weren’t prioritizing Wondercon for their promotion, and I can’t say I understand why. Was it the relative commercial failure of such ComicCon-loved properties such as Kick Ass and Scott Pilgrim? Or was it really all just about scheduling? But we did have film panels on Saturday (and one on Friday), so I was there. And this is what I saw. Continue reading “Wondercon: The 2011 Film Panels”