Infamous big personality/camera hog Morgan Spurlock has made a cottage industry out of the documentary film. He first burst onto the scene with his 2004 feature, Super Size Me, which followed the filmmaker as he existed on food from McDonalds for an entire month. And from the success of that film has come a tidal wave of Spurlock-conceived, reality-based stunt documentary, both on television and in the theaters. He’s hunted for Bin Laden, funded a film entirely on corporate sponsorship, and lived through countless other experiments on his TV project, 30 Days. And in his latest film, Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, he’s even experimented with keeping himself out of the movie and documenting a story in a more traditional way. But the one thing Spurlock has yet to do is produce a narrative bit of storytelling that he actually sat down and wrote. Yet.
In an interview with /Film, the filmmaker let loose some info that indicates this isn’t going to be the case for very much longer. Earlier in the year Spurlock became attached to write and direct a film project that he described as being “very Erin Brockovich-ish,” and, according to the filmmaker, enough work has been done on the film that they’re ready to schedule shooting.
Spurlock said, “It’s financed. We’ve closed on the financing on the film. We’re doing a rewrite on the script now to close in on cast. We’ve already got a really great actor attached to play the lead. I’m not going to tell you who it is. We’ve got a great actor attached to play his dad, which is even more exciting. As soon as we get the rewrite done and can lock into a schedule we’ll make a bigger announcement; but that’s happening. It’ll probably be this summer.”
With the news that a male lead has been cast, as well as the role of that character’s dad, it seems like we can all put away our hopes that Spurlock’s comments about the film being “very Erin Brockovich-ish,” referred to its use of big-name actresses and push-up bras. No, most likely what it means is that Spurlock’s tale will be some sort of inspiring true story that champions a cause. With Comic-Con Episode IV, he proved that he could move away from pulling stunts in order to tell a story in a more traditional way, but will he be able to make two movies in a row where he doesn’t get to mug for the camera? That will be the true test.
It’s time to start taking bets on whether or not the “great actor” attached to play the lead is actually Spurlock himself. Right now let’s put the odds at 2-1.